The Strib is once again screwing with workers' buyout money — and this time, it isn't a one-day thing.

Employees bought out this month had an 18-hour nightmare until a bankruptcy judge cleared payment earlier this week. This new controversy involves seven veteran staffers who gave up their jobs and seniority rights last year.

The union workers — from areas such as the photo lab, copy desk, and library — accepted the company's offer of up to 52 weeks going-away pay last spring and summer. They are paid biweekly; some are still owed several months' wages. But yesterday, the company said future payments will be capped at $10,950 each — even if workers are due tens of thousands more.

Newspaper Guild executive director Mike Bucsko says collectively, the small buyout class will lose $125,000 — but the amount is greater company-wide, since non-newsroom workers bought out at the same time face similar limits.

Newspaper Guild co-chair Graydon Royce, normally an even-tempered guy, says of the reneged promise, "It gets your anger level up, especially with the stuff coming out in the last couple of days about [restructuring consultant] Blackstone Group getting $150,000 a month plus a $4 million [reorganization bonus] at the end. Yet you tell someone you owe $25,000 to — who really needs it — to get lost."

Of management, he quips, "These guys buy consultants like sailors on shore leave. When you see these fees coming out, and the money they wasted on the Par Ridder defense ... These workers stepped forward to help the company out. How can you trust the company going forward? That's the issue."

Strib spokesman Ben Taylor did not return a call for comment, but Bucsko says owners determined that $10,950 was the legal limit it had to pay on unsecured claims.

The workers can now stand in line with dozens of big and small suppliers trying to get their balance due. The Strib's unions are trying to get a seat on the creditor's committee, which negotiates with management for repayment in bankruptcy.