Boston Globe union rejects concession package

Posted by Emma Heald on June 9, 2009 at 9:34 AM

The largest Boston Globe union has rejected a proposed package of salary and compensation cuts, meaning that the newspaper's owner, the New York Times Co, has said it would follow through with its threat to unilaterally impose a 23% wage cut. The Newspaper Guild said that its members had rejected the package by 277 to 265, meaning that 81% of members voted.

The Times Co. reached agreements with six of the Globe's seven unions last month on 10 million dollars worth of wage and benefit cuts but failed to strike a deal with the largest, the Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents newsroom staffers amongst others..The package on which the guild voted yesterday included a wage reduction of about 8.4 percent, a one-week unpaid furlough equivalent to a pay cut of 1.9 percent, the elimination of company contributions to retirement plans and an array of other concessions, according to the NYT. One of the arguments of opponents of the package was that management would be let off easy.

A statement released by the Globe management said that "since the parties are at an impasse, The Globe will implement the wage reduction effective next week." Management has sent a formal letter to the guild. The New York Times Co has said it needs a total of 20 million dollars in savings from the unions or it will shut down the paper, which is New England's largest. The Boston Globe is projected to lose $85 million this year, by some calculations. The company has made it clear it believes negotiations are over.

However, it appears that the guild is hoping for further negotiations. Its president Daniel Totten told reporters shortly after the result of the vote that "Boston Newspaper Guild is committed to resuming good-faith negotiations." The NYT reported that many guild members who opposed the package said they did so believing that further negotiations might result in a better deal than the threatened 23 percent cut. Union officials said before the voting that they hoped that rejection of the package would lead to another round of negotiation and expressed an intention to fight any unilateral pay cut with the National Labor Relations Board, in a process which could take some time.

It is clearly an extremely difficult time for Boston Globe employees, and the narrow margin by which the package was rejected reflects the lack of an obvious course to take. Although it seems unlikely that the Times Co will actually shut down the paper, if it continues to lose money this threat will remain. It is widely known that the parent company's finances are in trouble, and there has been considerable speculation about the future of its flagship paper, the New York Times. Will the pay cut go ahead or will negotiations resume?

Source: New York Times, AFP, Poynter