Faced with imminent layoffs and management's attempts to eliminate unions, workers from the Northern California Media Workers Union held a picket and press conference in front of the offices of the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday, June 26th.

Gloria La Riva, Typographical Sector president of the Media Workers Union Local 39521, which represents some of the affected workers, said the layoffs "would create extreme hardship for employees of the Mercury News."

The company has announced that it will lay off all composing room workers on July 1, the day after their contract expires. In all, nearly 30 employees in the advertising and production departments will be affected.

Editorial workers, who are members of the San Jose Newspaper Guild, are also facing layoffs of up to a quarter of their workforce by merging departments among newspapers owned by the parent company, MediaNews Group. When their current two-year contract was signed, editorial workers were told that there would be no more layoffs. Now, according to La Riva, MediaNews Group refuses to negotiate with the Newspaper Guild.

When workers started their pickets in protest, the company threatened to eliminate their severance pay unless they gave up their protests. According to La Riva, many who had worked for the San Jose Mercury News for twenty years or more were contractually entitled to up to 12 weeks of severance pay. "Now that is threatened," she said.

Photos | List of Santa Cruz Sentinel Layoffs | MediaWorkers.org