Shutdown threat eases at Globe
3 of 4 unions agree to terms
The threat of a shutdown of the Boston Globe diminished yesterday, after all-night negotiations led to agreements on significant concessions with three major unions and with talks set to resume soon with the one holdout, the Boston Newspaper Guild.
The eleventh-hour agreements led the Globe to withdraw the threat it made Sunday night to file an official notice to the state of its intention to close.
"We expect to achieve both the workplace flexibility, and the financial savings that we sought from these unions," said Globe spokesman Robert Powers. "We are not, therefore, making a filing today" under the federal plant-closing law.
The law requires companies to give 60 days notice to the state and employees before closing a business.
The Guild, the paper's largest union, was part of a marathon negotiating session Sunday night that reached a crescendo when Globe management vowed to file the plant-closing notice yesterday unless the Guild and three other major unions agreed to the demanded financial and contract concessions within hours.
Facing that threat, the three other unions, representing press operators, delivery truck drivers, and mailers, reached agreements in talks that stretched past dawn. Both the mailers and pressmen's union agreed to changes in their job-guarantee language to reach deals early yesterday, although they declined to provide details until the proposals were presented to their members.
The agreements with these unions, and with three other smaller bargaining units, brought the first real break in the tension at the newspaper since early last month, when the Times Co. threatened to shutter the Globe unless it gained $20 million in concessions from the newspaper's unions. The Globe is projected to lose $85 million this year without significant cost savings, according to the Times Co.
The possibility of a shutdown remains if the company can't reach agreement with the Guild over $10 million in cost reductions, as well as contract changes, particularly the elimination of lifetime job guarantees enjoyed by about 190 Guild employees, Powers said. But the threat seemed to have eased. In a statement yesterday, Powers said management could pursue other avenues to achieve the savings it needs.
"We are evaluating our alternatives under both the Guild contract and applicable law to achieve as quickly as possible the workplace flexibility and remaining cost savings that we need to help put the Globe on a sound footing," Powers said.
The company and the Guild, which represents more than 600 editorial, advertising, and business office workers, agreed to take a break after a nearly 20-hour session that began Sunday. No negotiations were held yesterday, and none had been scheduled. But both sides said they expected to resume them soon.
"We are committed to negotiating this matter until an agreement is reached that we can bring to Guild members for a vote," the Guild said in a statement.
The Guild on Sunday presented a proposal that provided, by the union's reckoning, slightly more than the $10 million sought by the Times Co., but management negotiators rejected it. The proposal included a wide range of cost savings, including a 3.5 percent pay cut for most Guild employees, unpaid furloughs, cuts in company healthcare contributions, and reductions in retirement benefits.
The talks, however, became tangled by the company's drive to eliminate lifetime job guarantees for members of the Guild and other unions. About 450 veteran workers in the unions have job guarantees.
Mary White, president of the Teamsters Local 1, which represents about 250 full- and part-time mailers, described the change in the job-guarantee language as a "modification" rather than a concession. She said it wasn't easy to reach the agreement, which still must be ratified by the union members, but she said she believed the Times Co. was truly prepared to shut the Globe unless the union came to terms.
"I felt I needed to bring something to my members and let them decide," White said.
White said she will wait for the outcome of Guild negotiations before scheduling a ratification vote, but expects the Guild to soon reach agreement with the company. So do other union officials.
"I have every confidence that the Globe and Guild are going to get a deal," said Martin Callaghan, president of the Boston Newspaper Printing Pressmen's Union Local 3. "Everybody is interested in saving the paper, and they'll find a deal."
Guild members also expressed hope that an agreement would be reached. Marcella Bombardieri, a reporter, said she believes the union might give up the job guarantees if the company gives something in exchange.
"It probably is worth more than $10 million to the company, and the company should put a value on it," she said. "This whole thing is scary, and worrying, but I think we'll get a deal because everybody wants to save the Globe."
In an interview early yesterday morning, Guild president Daniel Totten said the union had come up with the $10 million sought by the Times Co., and that, therefore, lifetime job guarantees should not be an issue in the talks.
If the company wants to alter the lifetime job guarantees, he said, it should follow existing contract provisions. Under these provisions, the company can invoke an emergency clause that would send the issue to a third-party arbitrator, empowered to review company financials and make a decision based in part on those financials.
"They said lifetime job guarantees are an issue they want to talk about and our response was, 'There's a mechanism in the contract to pursue that matter,' " Totten said. "We've offered that throughout these negotiations and we've encouraged that pursuit through the arbitration process."
But Globe management has not agreed to do that. And the Guild has not agreed to modify the language, creating a standoff. 