Globe union faces cuts, furloughs

The proposal, described as the company's final offer to the Boston Newspaper Guild, includes two measures that roughly amount to a 10 percent reduction in wages: an 8.3 percent wage cut and five days of unpaid furlough, according to several people briefed on the negotiations who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Other provisions include an end to matching 401(k) retirement contributions. Those with the job guarantees would receive enhanced severance payments if they are laid off, according to people briefed on the negotiations. About 190 Guild members hold the guarantee, which was negotiated in a 1994 contract in exchange for union concessions.

Getting the Guild to put a management offer before members reflects remarkable progress over the past four days. Management was prepared to file on Monday a 60-day plant-closing notice with the state when none of the paper's major unions had reached agreements for $20 million in concessions by the May 1 deadline. Then three of the four major unions struck deals, but the Guild and management remained far apart on any agreement until early yesterday morning.

With the threat of closure put aside for now, some Globe employees, readers, and community leaders breathed a sigh of relief yesterday.

Paul Grogan, president and chief executive of civic group The Boston Foundation, said the latest Guild deal essentially gives Boston's 137-year-old newspaper "new life."

"Just avoiding closure, I think, was very, very important," Grogan said yesterday. "And this will create an opportunity to figure something out."

So far this year hundreds of journalists and others at newspapers across the nation have been laid off as advertising revenue plunges because of the recession. Some papers have closed, while others have asked for deep employee cuts to survive. Many unions have agreed to benefit cuts and wage concessions.

This week the Chicago Newspaper Guild, the union representing Chicago Sun-Times editorial employees, approved a temporary 9 percent pay cut, a furlough, and a deferral of pension contributions, according to the Sun-Times. Meanwhile, Newspaper Guild members at The New York Times approved a 5 percent pay cut through the end of this year to save an estimated $4.5 million.

Tonight's Guild meeting in Boston kicks off what will probably be a difficult ratification process for the union, which represents more than 600 editorial, advertising, and business office workers. Unlike other Globe unions, Guild leaders did not strike a tentative agreement with the company. Instead, they merely reached an understanding to present the company's final offer to members for a vote.

Union leaders do not plan to recommend for or against its ratification. The vote has not been scheduled.

"We have a proposal to bring before members of The Boston Newspaper Guild," Guild president Daniel Totten said in a note to members e-mailed yesterday. "Since each member is the final authority on contract matters, it is imperative that we bring a proposal forward that will ultimately be voted on by the entire membership."

If the proposal is rejected, it would send the Guild negotiators back to the bargaining table with no guarantee they would get a better deal.

"It's going to be a tough vote," said Sean P. Murphy, who has worked 22 years as a reporter and editor. "The company's demanding very deep sacrifices."

Diane Fedele, who has worked in advertising for 26 years, said the Times Co. proposals have divided older and younger members over issues such as lifetime job guarantees.

"It's tough," said Fedele, a Guild member with a job guarantee. The company has "done a good job of convincing newer people that if it wasn't for us, we'd all be OK."

A rejection would raise new questions about the future of the Globe, which the Times Co. threatened to shutter unless the paper's unions agreed to $20 million in financial givebacks, as well contract concessions, such as the elimination of lifetime job guarantees for members in some unions. The Globe is projected to lose $85 million this year without significant cost reductions, according to the Times Co.

Catherine Mathis, the Times Co. spokeswoman, declined comment yesterday.

Globe management and the Guild ended negotiations early yesterday morning, culminating more than a month of high-stakes bargaining. Early Monday, Globe management reached agreements with unions representing press operators, mailers, and delivery truck drivers. In addition to millions in financial concessions, the pressmen and mailers agreed to modify lifetime job guarantee language in their contracts. As with the Guild, the members of the other unions must ratify the agreements before they can take effect.

Like many newspapers, the Globe has been hard hit over the years by the migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet, and more recently, by the recession. In the first three months of this year, advertising revenue at the Times Co.'s New England Media Group, dominated by the Globe, plunged by more than 30 percent compared with the same period in 2008.

Even with the union concessions, the Globe still faces the challenges of navigating the recession and finding a successful business model in the Internet age. Through its online affiliate, Boston.com, the Globe is attracting more readers than ever, but Internet advertising revenues remain insufficient to support newsgathering and other staff at the same levels as in the past.

To close the $85 million gap, the Globe is also counting on savings from cuts in management salaries and benefits and from the closing of the Billerica printing plant. The paper expects to raise revenue with more digital advertising and higher newspaper prices.

Former publisher Benjamin Taylor, the last member of his family to run the Globe, said it's important to the community that labor and management strike deals to help preserve the newspaper. Still, he cautioned it won't relieve the financial pressures facing newspapers.

"The paper has to prove itself every day with good reporting and good editing, and it's doing that," Taylor said. "But the economics of the newspaper business is difficult, and that's going to have to be solved."

Robert Gavin can be reached at rgavin@globe.com. Keith O'Brien can be reached at kobrien@globe.com.