A group of former and current Los Angeles Times employees filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell has put the company and their retirement plans at risk. The suit seeks to remove Zell from the Tribune Co. board; protect pension and retirement funds; and give the employee-owners a place at the table with regard to management of their assets, according to a release from the law firm representing the employees. Zell, a billionaire real estate developer, bought the former publicly-traded Tribune Co. in 2007 in a deal that included making employees as owners. Tribune owns newspapers, television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. According to the complaint, Zell has de-funded employees retirement packages, raided the employee pension fund for more than $400 million, and eliminated more than a thousand jobs.
