Union says it has an offer to resolve dispute with Globe

The Guild, the paper's largest union - representing editorial, advertising, and business workers - last week narrowly rejected a proposed contract that effectively would have eliminated lifetime job guarantees for about 190 members, cut wages by more than 10 percent, and reduced benefits. Management responded by declaring a bargaining impasse and imposing a 23 percent wage cut on Guild members, starting yesterday.

Representatives of the Globe and the Guild are scheduled to meet this morning - a meeting the company has said will be limited to how to implement the 23 percent cut. But Kathie Dalton, a Guild executive committee member, said yesterday that the union will use the session to put forth an "offer of resolution." She stopped short of calling the unspecified offer a proposal.

"We've been working on the numbers since the day after the 'no' vote to find the right formula that can lead to an agreement," Dalton said.

The company maintains the pay reduction is needed to get $10 million in savings from the Guild, half of the savings it is requiring from all of its unions.

"Throughout our negotiations we made our savings and restructuring needs very clear to the Guild," said Bob Powers, Globe spokesman. "They were consistent with what was worked out in the seven union agreements that have now been ratified. Urgent implementation of all these savings was an integral part of the Globe's turnaround plan."

The seventh union ratification came yesterday, as the small union representing Boston Globe engravers, who prepare page plates for the newspaper's printing presses, approved a contract that will reduce pay and other benefits by $200,000.

Members of the 20-person Graphic Communications Local 600 voted 10 to 1, with nine others sitting out Saturday's balloting, to approve the concessions, Powers said. The concessions included an end to lifetime job guarantees and the freezing of contributions to the union's pension plans, he said. George Carlson, union president, could not be reached for comment.

The contracts ratified by the seven unions produce savings totaling slightly more than $10 million. The company had said the newspaper was on track to lose $85 million this year unless it could win concessions from its unions.

Also yesterday, several dozen newsroom employees held what was billed as a "farewell to fair wages" party to spotlight their standoff with management. One of those who attended, reporter Beth Daley, said she believed the two sides were not far apart. She said she hopes management would agree to modify the contract the Guild voted down so members can now approve it.

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.