10 Day Mandatory Leave w/out Pay for ALL Media General Employees

How bad is it at Media General? BAD. Here's a memo I received this morning from a friend in Richmond...click on photo to enlarge. What the memo, from the President of Media General says is:

Feb. 18, 2009

Dear Fellow Employees,
So far in 2009, economic and corporate earnings reports have been worse than expected. Consumers and businesses continue to reduce spending, which is causing the advertising market to weaken further. The contracting economy and uncertain outlook require us to be even more cautious than we already have been regarding our revenue expectations for 2009. Despite aggressive sales initiatives and significant cost reductions, I regret to report that we need to build in additional expense savings to offset the revenue shortfalls our divisions anticipate.

During the remainder of this year, each of us will take a mandatory 10 days off according to the schedule below, and our pay will be reduced commensurately. The company is also asking its unionized and other employees under contract to agree to participate in furloughs in lieu of layoffs. Furlough days do not have to be taken consecutively, but they must be taken one full day at a time. The days can be taken effective immediately and must be scheduled with your supervisor to minimize business disruptions. Furlough days can be accelerated as long as you have approval. On furlough days, you should not participate in work-related activities.

Furlough schedule:
4 days between today and March 29, 2009
3 days between March 30 and June 28, 2009
3 days between June 29 and September 27, 2009
When non-exempt employees take a furlough day, the reduction for that day's pay will be made at that time. For exempt employees, furlough pay reductions, amounting to the equivalent of 10 days spread over the first three quarters of 2009, will be automatically deducted from their paychecks. The reduction will be spread to equal four days in March and six days between March 30 and September 27. A Q & A regarding this program will be posted to theMeganet today, and your HR representative is also available to answer questions.

I understand and regret the financial hardship this will cause. In recognition of the particular hardship of the four days that must be taken in the relatively short period between now and March 29, 2009, we are instituting a program whereby employees may request an advance on all or part of their pay reduction for that period. Any advances will be repaid to the company over the remaining nine months of 2009. Employees seeking this option should contact their HR representative to fill out the appropriate forms, which will include the equivalent of an IOU to the company.

These are unprecedented times. Your loyalty and hard work are very much appreciated as we work together to weather the economic turmoil in our country and our industry. We believe the prudence of our actions now will help us navigate to more prosperous times.
Yours sincerely,

Brilliantly written opinion piece in Star Tribue

If you like reading unedited opinion pieces, don't miss this one from Anne Cockrell in The Star Tribune. The Tribune tends not to hack up their editorial submissions to fit the amount of space that have. They care about content, not just butchering a letter to make it fit. Well written. Whatever side of the uranium mining in Virgina issue you're own, this is outstanding.


A Little Puff?' - a focus on the absurdity of uranium mining

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:08 AM EST

Patrick Wales, a Virginia Uranium Inc. geologist, has been often quoted in Virginia newspapers of late. Some of what he has said has been variations of the truth; some statements have been absolutely absurd.

Let's focus on the absurd, shall we?

Wales was quoted in the Danville Register & Bee (Report tackles lobbying efforts, J. R. Crane, November 24, 2008) as saying: "That's what we're up against as a small, locally-owned company... [VUI] has a very difficult, uphill battle."

Calling VUI a small, locally-owned company is laughable. Small in employee numbers, it may be, but it's a company incorporated in the Yukon Province of Canada that has millions of foreign-backed dollars to help achieve VUI's objective: overturn Virginia's moratorium on uranium mining and begin mining in Southside Virginia.

VUI's $100,000 payment to lobbyists was well within the company's financial means, and Wales knows this.

In fact, it paid off. Lobbyists were successful in getting the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission to go before the Richmond General Assembly (Nov. 6, 2008) and push through a uranium mining study for Southside Virginia - one that had died a legislative death in a House committee on March 3, 2008.

So much for "a very difficult uphill battle."

In the Martinsville Bulletin, an article ran following Wales' address to the Martinsville Rotary Club (Virginia Uranium geologist touts benefits of mining, K. Barto, Wednesday, November 19, 2008).

The article stated: "The Coles' property, which is a 'historic structure,' sits between the two uranium deposits, and the family plans to continue living there while mining goes on, Wales said."

I wonder if the Rotarians really believed Walter Coles (VUI's founder) and his family are going to live in a house between two operational uranium mines where there will be daily surface blasting of low-level radioactive bedrock.

Even if the miners bubble-wrapped the house and were able to save it from flying rock projectiles or, by some miracle, kept it standing post 30 years' endurance of surface-blast vibrations, it would still lose its allure when viewed through the chain-link fence which will one day surround the former Coles Hill homestead.

On the fence, the Department of Energy's radiation hazard signs will warn folks to stay away from this U.S. government-owned property. That's the only entity that will have any use for this land once all mining and milling of uranium ceases, and this is only because it will become a superfund site.

How can I make that assumption?

Wales spoke of the "worst-case scenario," the Canonsburg Mill site in Canonsburg, Pa.

Per the article: "In the mid-1980s, the Department of Energy cleaned up the site and contained the waste in a disposal area lined with soil and clay barriers. Since then, Wales said, 'Not one milling-related constituent has shown up in a nearby creek.'"

Now, this is the very same site that Walter Coles has previously touted to be a place where uranium was milled "successfully east of the Mississippi."

In reality, it's an 18.6 acre plat of acreage that is now a $48 million superfund site. Today, this site stores 376,000 cubic yards of contaminated material behind a fenced-in area. It will be monitored in perpetuity to protect Pennsylvanians from the radioactive wastes buried there.

Wales and VUI plans to mine uranium out of Walter Coles' 900-acre-property (plus annexing and mining additional acreage belonging to surrounding families) once the state's moratorium is lifted.

If it cost $48 million to remediate an 18.6-acre plat of land where uranium was milled, one has to wonder what the price tag will be for cleaning up over a thousand acres once uranium is both mined and milled at Coles Hill.

Big question: Who will pay the remediation costs?

Perhaps it's the "new technology" that gave Wales the confidence to make yet another absurd statement regarding mine tailings (the leftover mined rock that must be buried or submerged in holding ponds to try and contain its radioactivity.

Per the article: "He explained that tailings are contained in a pit underground, removing any interaction between the tailings and the atmosphere,' he said."

Well, isn't the low-level radioactive bedrock going to come in contact with the atmosphere when it is surface-blasted out of the ground over a period of 30 years? This is VUI's proposed timetable to mine at Coles Hill.

How about the milling process where mined rock will be ground into a fine powdery state for ore extraction?

Think it will all be done in a clean, sterile, indoor environment? No, open-pit/surface-blast mining implies just that.

The daily, successive explosive blasts and milling process will create a continuous low-level radioactive fallout which will be carried by the winds onto food and water sources and into the airways of man and all other animal life unfortunate enough to be downwind from the mine.

When asked in the article about how far dust would blow from the mining operations, Wales stated, "If you use underground mining, it's a moot point...even it other methods are used [surface-blast], there is very little dust. There may be a little puff when blasting."

A little puff?

Wales, VUI and anyone who believes surface-blast mining will create only "a little puff" should google and watch the Mountaintop Removal Movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPixjCneseE).



It's an eight-minute video with Woody Harrelson (sitcom actor of "Cheers") discussing the sad demise of 450 mountains along the Appalachian Mountain chain where surface-blast mining is being used for coal removal.

It clearly illustrates that surface-blast mining creates more than "a little puff" of dust. It also speaks of the enduring hardships of the people living adjacent to these mined areas.

Lastly, Wales stated: "We feel confident that there are many examples around the world of how it's [uranium mining] done safely."

Uranium mining opponents simply ask Wales and VUI to name five of these places where uranium mining and milling has not caused adverse effects to the surrounding people and environment.

Funny, Wales didn't offer up an example.

Stay tuned. Let's see him name even one.

Anne Cockrell,

Southside Concerned

Citizens member

Danville

The death of a friend....

(The following was submitted by Chatham, VA (USA) resident Henry Mitchell and was originally posted on http://www.svdpalc.blogspot.com/ on 08/02/08). I am posting it here because this is the sort of story we need more of in our small rural area. While the media has moved on from the stories of Katrina, the lives of those affected by the storm go on. And for those of you who love animals and wonder what happened to Katrina cats - here's the story of one - who sadly passed on last year. This is her story....

Remember Katrina: Miss Kitty, the Post-Katrina Cat

Allow me to introduce you to a personal friend of mine who sadly passed away last year. Her name is Miss Kitty (see photo at left, wearing a red cat sweater for Christmas time).

Miss Kitty and I became good friends while I was "a displaced person" in Hurricane Katrina. Miss Kitty belonged to my sister Marci and her husband Chris -- although I am sure that in Miss Kitty's mind she simply graciously allowed them to take care of her and open her cans of cat food and tuna fish.
For quite some time Miss Kitty was my constant friend while I was in Virginia. I would talk to her and she would meow back; it was one of the most civilized and enlightening conversations I have ever had.

Miss Kitty was born in Bucktown (a fishing village/suburb of New Orleans), and pretty much lived the life of an alley cat until being rescued by my sister. While I had the opportunity to exist in her presence, I appointed her as Queen of the first ever Mardi Gras parade in Chatham, Virginia -- the Mystik Krewe of Miss Kitty. She was, of course, Queen Miss Kitty the First.

Her royal theme song was "The Miss Kitty Mombo." (It was sung to the tune of "The Mardi Gras Mombo." For example: "Down in New Orleans, Where the Blues was born; It takes a cool CAT, to blow a horn ... The Miss Kiity Mombo, Mombo, Mombo, Down in New Orleans.")

This august Carnival Krewe consisted of precisely myself and Miss Kitty. However, despite the painfully low attendance for her first parade, I do believe Her Royal Majesty was pleased, especially by the Royal Banquet afterwards which consisted of canned tuna fish.

Because of this success, I also appointed her as the Irish Princess for the first (unofficial) St. Patrick's Day Parade in that small Virginia town too.

In classic New Orleans Irish Channel style, Princess Miss Kitty the First helped toss out green cabbages to the crowd -- which, as in the Mardi Gras parade earlier, consisted only of myself and the Princess. Miss Kitty did not care for cold climates and eventually returned to hot and humid New Orleans for one last time before the cat diseases of old age took her away from us.

Miss Kitty lives on as a constant memory of a true cat friend who helped me endure what can only be termed as the nightmare of Hurricane Katrina. Cats and dogs and other animal companions really are important in our lives, and they help us humans endure the struggles of life, be they great or small, or catastrophic like Hurricane Katrina.
So, we owe the animals a lot. Here's to you, Miss Kitty.
-- Adrian


Adrian is "Adrian McGrath -- AmeriCorps Member, Teacher, Blog Manager. (Literacy*AmeriCorps New Orleans -- L*AC -- is a part of the national U.S. governmental organization called AmeriCorps. L*AC works with the Literacy Alliance of New Orleans and is headquartered at the Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy at Loyola University in New Orleans.)