The Boston Globe's largest union said it filed unfair labor practice charges against the company yesterday, as Globe management insisted it would impose a 23 percent wage cut beginning Sunday.
The Boston Newspaper Guild's action, filed with the National Labor Relations Board, was announced at a membership meeting last night. It follows the union's narrow rejection Monday of a $10 million package of concessions that included wage reductions totaling about 10 percent; deep cuts in health and retirement benefits such as a pension freeze; and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees. After the vote, the paper's owner, The New York Times Co., declared an impasse and moved to impose the wage cuts it says it needs to keep operating the money-losing paper.
Guild leaders also said they asked the NLRB to seek a court order to block the Times Co. from imposing the wage cut while the case is being litigated, a process that could take months. Such court orders are rare in these cases, according to legal specialists, and certainly unlikely before the pay cut goes into effect Sunday. The Guild won't have its first hearing before the board until Tuesday.
"What's really clear is this is going to happen," said reporter Donovan Slack. "Covering a quarter of my paycheck beyond a few weeks is untenable. Beyond a few months is impossible."
In addition to the NLRB complaint, the Guild is also pressing to resume negotiations. Guild leaders are calling for the parties to enter into mediation to resolve the dispute, and will meet Monday with Globe management.
"This is very, very difficult for all our members. We know there's a lot of fear and nervousness," Guild president Daniel Totten said after the meeting attended by about 100 members. "We want to get a deal."
But Globe management said yesterday there's no other deal to be had. Globe spokesman Robert Powers said the purpose of Monday's meeting is "to discuss the implementation of the 23 percent wage cut."
In a letter to Totten yesterday, Gregory Thornton, the Globe's chief negotiator, said management has "no time and therefore no interest" to bargain further with the Guild. The letter, written in response to a Guild request to rescind the wage cut and reopen bargaining, said management believes further discussions would be "futile."
"The parties have bargained and are at impasse," Thornton said in a letter to Totten. "Therefore, the Globe will not rescind its 'declaration of impasse' or withdraw its notice of implementation."
In an earlier letter to Thornton, Totten said the union believes the pay cut violates labor laws, as well as the terms of its contract, and as a result "The Guild has the opportunity to negotiate as to the wage reduction alternative proposal."
Meanwhile, a group of Globe reporters sent a letter yesterday to Times Co. chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. imploring him to intervene in the contract dispute.
"We're asking you to call off the lawyers, head off a bitter fight, and come forward with a plan that would attract a bit more support from the Guild," the reporters wrote.
Catherine Mathis, the Times Co. spokeswoman, declined comment.
But the Times Co. issued a statement yesterday saying that with the deep wage cut imposed on guild members, the company removed its threat to close the Globe because it had achieved a total of $20 million in concessions from its unions.
Robert Gavin can be reached at gavin@globe.com. 
