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Boston Globe: We've got a deal
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
May 6, 2009 - 7:39:22 AM

In the wee hours of morning, after months of tense negotiations, the Boston Globe reached an agreement over wage and benefit concessions with the union representing the paper's reporters and editors, likely putting an end to threats by the Globe's owner, The New York Times Co., to close the paper.

The terms of the deal have not been revealed, and likely won't be until union leaders meet with the Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents some 600 newsroom employees, as well as employees working in advertising and other business-side operations.

The terms of the deal are to be presented to union members tomorrow.

This latest agreement, reportedly reached around 3 a.m., is with the paper's largest union, and it appears to have been the hardest to come by. As of Monday, agreements had been reached with all the other unions at New England's largest daily.

Talks with guild leaders had resumed last night after a marathon session that ended earlier in the day failed to come to terms.

The agreement must now be approved by guild members. If it should fail to pass, presumably the whole process would begin again, with the Times Co. reissuing its threat to close the paper if a deal is not reached.

That threat was first issued a month ago when, facing huge losses, reportedly $85 million this year alone, the Times Co. demanded that the Globe's unions agree to wage and benefit concessions valued at $20 million a year.

The parent company was looking for half that figure to come from the guild. It was also looking to end job guarantees for guild members who'd been with the paper for more than 17 years.

The guild resisted, having already gone through a number of layoffs and cutbacks over the past several years as the ad slowdown worsened.

It came back with concessions it argued met the $10 million goal, from pay cuts to longer work weeks to reduced benefits, but balked at ending job security, even though the paper's other unions had agreed to do so.

Just what changed at 3 a.m. this morning is unknown, but it would appear the guild gave in on job security.

Ending job security makes it easier and less costly for the paper to trim its workforce, as so many papers across the country have had to do these past several years.

While many forecasters expect to see some pick up in advertising as the economy improves, the longterm outlook for newspapers is bleak at best. The revenue simply won't be there to support the huge workforces that so many major dailies have enjoyed over the recent decades.