Deal or no deal:
Boston guild votes
The Globe's biggest union may reject a deal
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Jun 8, 2009
Will the Boston Newspaper Guild ratify a new contract with Boston Globe ownership, or will the New York Times Co. renew its threats to close the venerable newspaper?
That’s very much the question today as the BNG, the Boston Globe’s biggest union, votes on a deal being offered by the New York Times Co. that would slash salaries the equivalent of 10 percent and eliminate lots of other small perks, a deal that never received the endorsement of union leadership and has been getting negative publicity in recent weeks.
There’s a real possibility that passage of the deal will fail, even after the drivers’ union approved a new contract slashing $2.5 million in wages and benefits over the weekend.
Still, The Times seems to have backed down from the threat of closure in recent days.
Instead, management has said that if the Boston Newspaper Guild does not accept the deal, members’ pay will be reduced by 23 percent across the board.
That’s led the guild to accuse the NYT Co. of engaging in “threats, bullying and negotiating at gunpoint.” The BNG says it would enlist federal regulators to fight the proposed 23 percent pay cut.
The new deal would reduce wages by 8.4 percent, implement a mandatory five-day furlough, cut company 401(K) contributions and eliminate the lifetime job guarantee enjoyed by employees who came to the company before 1993, a huge bone of contention in negotiations.
The New York Times Co. wants to reduce BNG costs by $10 million as part of its overall plan to stop the bleeding at the Globe. It has already received approval for a total of $10 million in cuts from the paper’s other unions.
The paper lost $50 million last year and is on pace to lose another $85 million in 2009. Several other high-profile newspapers, including the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have been shut down this year, but the Globe would be by far the most influential paper to be closed.
Public indications are that the contract is in danger of being rejected. A group of employees tried to reignite negotiations between both sides by collecting signatures, a ploy that stalled out.
Many others have been vocal in their disappointment in how management has treated the situation.
Voting will continue until 8 p.m. tonight.
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