This sounds like a nice way of saying things will never be the same again, but however you put it, he's got a point. Some immediate employee turnover is expected, even required. The strike settlement includes programs to encourage early retirement and provide severance pay for employees who decide to move on. Given the company's estimate that 10 percent of its workers need to be cut through attrition, that's a lot of people going out the door in a short period. And there's a reason strikes hit the editorial departments of newspapers especially hard.
Journalists are an insular group.
One of the more impassioned speeches during a strike vote came from a longtime reporter whose most pressing concern was that many of her friends were considering leaving the paper. At The Seattle Times , this makes for people taking things personally on all sides. Many strikers were upset that the letter they received warning of their impending replacement during the strike was signed by a group of assistant managing editors rather than top dogs Sizemore and Blethen. Guild spokesman Ron Judd, a Times columnist, says it's inevitable that some animosity will be in the air. That's a fact of life in a strike.