CBS owned station WBZ has offered buyouts to photographers and engineers. The Boston Globe has confirmed the move through the workers union on Thursday. This comes a day after health reporter Dr. Mallika Marshall announced she’d been laid off.

Fletcher Fischer, business manager and financial secretary for IBEW Local 1228, said the news station is offering buyouts to six photographers and three people in the engineering department. The union currently represents 36 workers at WBZ, which is owned by CBS,he said.

An Aug. 15 deadline has been set for workers to decide if they want to accept the buyout, and their final day would be sometime in September, Fischer said. He said he was not sure if the station will eliminate those positions.

“Is this just a way to reduce the body count at WBZ, or are they going to replace them with cheaper and younger employees?” Fischer said in an interview Thursday.

The union’s presence at WBZ is small compared to other local television stations. Fischer said the union represents more than 95 workers at WHDH-TV and about 90 at WCVB-TV.

The Boston Globe

Fischer said he believe the buyouts were in some way because of Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.

“I gotta believe it has something to do with the merger,” he said, referencing the company’s settlement with Trump and recent turmoil at CBS. “And they canceled Colbert.”

We asked CBS about it, but haven’t heard back. We’ll update when we do.