Dispute could hurt possible sale of Globe

The Globe reported yesterday that the Times Co. is seeking bids on the newspaper it has owned since 1993, less than a day after the Boston Newspaper Guild filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board. The Guild is challenging the company's decision to declare an impasse in negotiations and impose a 23 percent wage cut on the union's members.

Globe spokesman Robert Powers said, "We've been in touch with the NLRB and are in the process of responding as appropriate."

In the best of circumstances, the process is slow as a charge moves through NLRB investigations, hearings, and appeals, then the federal court system, labor law specialists said. But the process could slow further because the five-member NLRB has three vacancies, and a federal Appeals Court in Washington recently ruled that two sitting members are not enough to make decisions.

The NLRB has petitioned the court to reconsider that decision. President Obama has named nominees for two of the vacancies. The nominations must be confirmed by the Senate.

But the prospect of a long labor dispute could make the paper less attractive to buyers, analysts said. If the case is eventually decided in favor of the Guild, a new owner could face a huge bill for back pay and interest, said Thomas Kohler, a Boston College law professor.

"Anybody who buys it, buys it with the liabilities," Kohler said. "Unless the board and courts make fast decisions, there's ongoing liabilities, and that makes the paper less attractive."

The Guild and the Times Co. are locked in a dispute over $10 million in concessions that the company says it needs to keep operating the money-losing paper. Union members earlier this week narrowly rejected a contract offer that spread the cuts among wages and an array of benefits. The Times Co. declared an impasse, and on Sunday will impose the huge pay cut on nearly 700 editorial, advertising, and business office workers.

In a letter to Times Co. chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., Guild president Daniel Totten called for a new round of negotiations, which the Guild argued would improve the prospects for selling the Globe.

"For the Times Co. to be in a position of strength with regard to selling The Boston Globe, it will have to reach a fair wage agreement with the Boston Newspaper Guild," Totten said, "one that forgoes the punitive action of cutting the wages of members by 23 percent. This will diminish the value of the paper by forcing the very best workers to go elsewhere."

Meanwhile, Totten said the union would be interested in negotiating a deal with prospective buyers to become an equity partner in the Globe. Such a deal would be similar to one made in Portland, Maine. There, the guild local and other unions at the Press Herald newspaper made wage and benefit concessions to a buyer in exchange for a 15 percent stake in the company and seats on the board of directors.

"We recognize that we are all facing difficult economic times and understand that any future owner of the Globe would require changes to our contract," Totten said. "We would like to explore with any potential new owner the possibility of an equity stake in the newspaper for its Guild employees and would work with any ownership group to be a positive dynamic in any sale process."

Times Co. officials won't comment on potential sales or divestitures of assets.

Responding yesterday to a letter from Globe reporters seeking his intervention in the dispute, Sulzberger said company officials don't want to impose a huge wage cut on Guild members, but the paper's financial situation leaves them no choice.

"We are now left with no alternative other than to proceed with the wage reduction," Sulzberger wrote in an e-mail. "Without that, the Globe will be unable to effectuate the savings already ratified by its other unions, in which case it simply cannot survive."

Robert Gavin can be reached at rgavin@globe.com.