ultimatum needs to be made.
Shape up or you're out.
Yes, you said you'd be SOL if you fired someone, but if they're slacking off anyway, you're not really saving much money.
Someone needs to be canned.
Then you can offer overtime or extra pay for people to pick up the slack while you hire someone else.
Maybe even start the interviewing process early and get a few candidates in mind, then lay down the hammer and get rid of the old trash.
I think the ultimatum needs to happen first.
It's they're job, they get paid to do it, if they don't do it as expected then they're worthless.
