Layoffs

Another hospital trying to stay afloat in a sea of red ink says it will lay off some staff to try to save about $1 million. J. Peter Tilley, president of Osteopathic Medical Center of Philadelphia on City Avenue near Belmont, said plans were not final, but the layoffs would affect less than 5 percent of the staff of more than 700. Tilley said more details would be available at a community meeting tonight. He said he did not expect any nurses to be let go, but the layoffs will be "across a wide variety of service areas" from secretarial to laboratory personnel.

About 30 Washington Township teachers last night protested an administration plan to lay off 27 nontenured teachers, including 12 teachers in the middle school, which is overcrowded. After the protest, the school board moved into a closed session and was expected to vote on the layoffs after midnight. The proposed layoffs would take effect for the 1987-88 school year, one year before two new middle schools are scheduled to be completed. Opponents of the layoffs said they were illogical, would increase class size and would rid the system of experienced teachers when they are needed most.

By now, surely you've heard about the $629 million gap that must be closed in the 2011-12 budget for the Philadelphia School District. The district won't pass a budget until May 31, and much can change by then, but the situation looks grim. Layoffs are a given. District officials have publicly said they expect to have 1,261 fewer teachers next school year: 1,029 fewer regular-education teachers and 232 fewer special-education teachers. The total layoff number will not be that large, but we don't yet know what it will be. But the district and the union are giving two answers about whether teachers at Promise Academies - district-run Renaissance schools with longer school days and years - will be exempt from layoffs.

Mayor Rendell said yesterday he plans to lay off more than 2,000 city workers soon if negotiations with the two non-uniformed unions aren't of "a positive, good faith nature" Union leaders, meanwhile, stepped up their efforts to influence public opinion by sending dozens of "truth squads" through Center City with leaflets urging citizens not to believe the "hype" of the Rendell administration. Rendell said administration officials are fine-tuning layoff plans and that he expects a new draft by the end of the week.

About 200 unionized workers for the Inquirer and Daily News rallied yesterday against pending layoffs of 10 editorial assistants as part of an overall expansion and restructuring plan at the Inquirer. Workers walked silently in a circle in front of the newspapers' building at Broad and Callowhill streets, with signs reading "Meet the New 'Lundy,' Lose Your Job on Munday," referring to Inquirer editor Walker Lundy. Henry Holcomb, an Inquirer reporter and president of the local Newspaper Guild, said the purpose of the 30-minute rally was to show Lundy that the layoffs, to take affect in October, concern reporters, photographers, circulation and advertising employees of both newspapers.

Voluntary job cuts have prevented layoffs at The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, the newspapers' publisher announced yesterday. "I don't foresee any layoffs in 1992 at this point in time," said Robert J. Hall, publisher of Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. Early last month, Hall told employees that the recession would require deep cost-cutting and that layoffs might be considered. PNI sought to eliminate the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs through voluntary reductions. Hall said yesterday that the equivalent of 143 full-time jobs were eliminated.

East Whiteland Township is facing a $300,000 gap in its budget this year and must either borrow the money or lay off workers, Board of Supervisors Chairman John J. Finn said Tuesday. The township has 31 employees, and every department, including police, could be affected if layoffs are needed, Finn said. "The worst-case scenario would mean we won't have money to pay anybody," Finn said. East Whiteland Township supervisors have scheduled a special public meeting for Tuesday to discuss the prospect of a loan with residents.

Confronted with a $685,803 deficit carried forward from last year, Phoenixville Borough is considering further layoffs that will include police, Borough Manager Bill McCauley said Thursday. In a memo sent to council members Tuesday detailing the borough's financial crisis, McCauley said layoffs were among a number of extreme measures that had to be taken. McCauley, who took office in July, said the moves could not wait until the fall as they did last year, when 10 borough employees were laid off. He said immediate action was necessary to reduce the deficit.

SAFETY COSTS money, and in New Jersey right now, police officers and governing bodies are trying to figure out if they can sacrifice for safety's sake. As layoffs become a real possibility for police departments across the state, both parties have different ideas of what safety and sacrifice mean, though. To avoid layoffs and maintain public safety, administrators say they need sacrifices in the name of pay freezes, furloughs, health-care contributions and other concessions. Officers and their union representatives feel that governments are in search of a quick budget fix and are too willing to sacrifice public safety by laying off officers.

Gloucester Township may be forced to lay off as many as 12 of its 44 clerical employees and reduce the workweek for other municipal employees to maintain services without increasing taxes this year, officials said. The township on Wednesday took the first steps toward ordering layoffs by asking the state Department of Personnel for permission to issue 45-day notices of termination. The state has 30 days to decide on the request, said John McPeak, the township business administrator.

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon official signaled on Wednesday that the Army could lay off as many as 24,000 enlisted personnel and up to 5,000 officers within five years to meet a projected reduction in the force driven by budget cuts and the winding down of two wars. Pressed on the possibility of involuntary terminations, Thomas Lamont, an assistant secretary of the Army, told a Senate Armed Services panel that layoffs were possible as the Army shrinks from a peak of 570,000 to 490,000.

BY THE TIME the buzzer sounded in the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday afternoon, after the "We Don't Like You" and "You Can't Beat Us" chants, and a victor was declared in the Flyers-Penguins steel-cage death match, few Flyers were more beat up than Kimmo Timonen. For Timonen, and warriors like him, the scars, bruises and limping are an annual rite of hockey in spring time. See: 2008 Eastern Conference final against Pittsburgh, when Timonen missed four games with a blood clot in his ankle.

Crozer Keystone Health System in Delaware County laid off 30 employees, including 22 managers and eight staff members, as part of an effort to trim its workforce by 325, spokeswoman Kathy Scullin said. Most of the cuts were made through early retirement, which accounted for 196 of the full-time-equivalent positions that were eliminated. In all, 216 people took the buyout offer, Scullin said. The balance of the cuts were made through the elimination of vacant positions. — Harold Brubaker

Venus Williams won in her first singles match since August, dispatching Kimiko Date-Krumm , 6-0, 6-3, on Wednesday at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla. She beamed wide, raised her arms in victory, then skipped to the net to shake's Date-Krumm's hand before twirling around and pumping her arms in a celebration worthy of winning the title, not just a first match. But other than playing a meaningless doubles match in early February, she hadn't played an official match since the U.S. Open first round.

THE NEWSPAPER GUILD says it will fight job cuts announced yesterday inside the ivory tower that houses the Daily News , the Inquirer , philly.com and SportsWeek . Recently proposed cuts to the editorial staffs of the papers and the website became official when 19 employees learned that they will be laid off at the end of the month and 21 other staffers accepted a buyout offer. Three managers at the Inquirer also were laid off. At the Daily News , the job cuts included a photographer, a news reporter, a sportswriter, a desk assistant, three part-time copy editors and a part-time editorial assistant.

Philadelphia Media Network Inc. will lay off 19 unionized workers in its three newsrooms - four full-timers and 15 part-timers - and 21 additional newsroom employees have been approved for voluntary buyouts. The layoffs of reporters, copy editors, multimedia content producers, and others at The Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com would occur March 31. Five nonunion employees from the three newsrooms, including three from The Inquirer, also were laid off, bringing the total number of jobs being lost to 45. In a statement, PMN said the layoffs and buyouts were a response to "the unfortunate economic conditions that continue to impact" the newspaper industry.

Are proposed delivery cutbacks and layoffs the right way to save the U.S. Postal Service?

Micheal Eric was as happy as an NBA lottery pick on draft night. For Temple's 6-foot-11 center, it had everything to do with playing in Saturday's 73-60 victory over Maryland at the Palestra. It was his first appearance since Nov. 20 against Wichita State in San Juan, Puerto Rico. "Man, this felt good," said Eric, who missed 13 games with a fractured right kneecap. "And to top it off, we had this win against a very, very good team. So that feeling was amazing. " The graduate student, who was a starter before the injury, entered the game to chants of "Micheal Eric!

Laying off 47 Philadelphia School District nurses has caused children to suffer and is endangering their health, a group of nurses said Wednesday. One diabetic student had to transfer from her school because it had no full-time nurse, they said. At another school, they added, the principal erroneously administered a medication without doctor's orders. "He was trying to help. He thought he was doing the right thing," said the nurse, who asked that her name and that of the school and principal be withheld because she didn't want to get the principal in trouble.

Laying off 47 Philadelphia School District nurses has caused children to suffer and is endangering their health, a group of nurses said Wednesday. One diabetic student had to transfer from her school because it had no full-time nurse, they said. At another school, they added, the principal erroneously administered a medication without doctor's orders. "He was trying to help. He thought he was doing the right thing," said the nurse, who asked that her name and that of the school and principal be withheld because she didn't want to get the principal in trouble.