Globe, Newspaper Guild reach understanding

Totten declined to disclose details of the offer until a membership
meeting tomorrow. Globe spokesman Robert Powers declined comment.

The understanding between the union and management came after a tense
month of bargaining that began when The New York Times Co., the owner of
the Globe, said it would shut the paper unless the Guild and other Globe
unions agreed to $20 million in concessions. Half of that was to come from
Guild, the largest of the unions with about 600 members.

The other major unions, representing the newspaper's mailers,
pressman and drivers, came to agreements after high-pressure talks on
Sunday night and early Monday morning. Those agreements are still subject
to ratification by members. But the Guild left the bargaining site in
Weymouth without agreement that night.

Entering last night's bargaining the session the two sides were far
apart on terms. The company on Sunday had proposed what it called its
"last, best offer," deeply slashing wages of guild members by 23 percent
to gain the $10 million in concessions, according to union and management
representatives with knowledge of the negotiations.

The draconian wage cut was seen by some observers as a move that
could have laid the groundwork for management to declare an impasse and
unilaterally impose the draconian wage cuts, said Thomas Kohler, a Boston
College law professor.

Labor laws allow companies, under certain legal conditions, to
impose the terms of their last, best offer if an impasse is reached in
negotiations.

The union on Sunday had countered with a proposal that provided, by
the union's reckoning, slightly more than $10 million in savings, but
management negotiators rejected it.

The proposal included a wide range of cuts in pay and benefits,
including a 3.5 percent wage reduction for most members, pension cutbacks,
and a lengthening of the workweek from 37.5 to 40 hours.

The talks, however, had become deadlocked over the company's drive
to eliminate lifetime job guarantees for about 190 guild employees.

Declaring an impasse would have been a risky maneuver that
could touch off a messy fight that could drag on lasting for years in the
courts, at the National Labor Relations Board, and even in the streets,
said Kohler.

The Detroit newspapers strike of 1995 was touched off after
management of the Detroit News and Detroit Free-Press declared an impasse
and imposed the conditions of the last contract offer.

The strike lasted for 19 months and court battles stretched into the
next decade.

"Going to impasse is a high-stakes game because the actual
determination of impasse doesn't occur until after the fact," said Kohler.
"It's very chancy."

Ultimately, the National Labor Relations Board and courts determine
whether the legal requirements of impasse were met, Kohler said.

The determination of impasse hinges on findings that both sides made
earnest efforts to reach agreement, and negotiated in good faith, Kohler
said.

Negotiations between the company and the guild have been laborious
and contentious since the Times Co. early last month threatened to shutter
the money-losing paper unless unions agreed to major financial and contract
concessions within 30 days.

The company was prepared to file a 60-day plant closing notice on
Monday until Globe management struck deals with three of the paper's four
major unions early that morning.

In addition to agreeing to millions of dollars in financial
concessions, unions representing press operators and mailers also agreed to
change language governing lifetime job guarantees.

Union officials have declined to provide details. The agreements
still must be ratified by the vote of members of each union.

Now Those unions were watching the outcome of the guild negotiations,
knowing their livelihood could hinge on the outcome. Mary White, president
of Teamsters Local 1, which represents about 250 full- and part-time
mailers, said she won't schedule a ratification vote until the guild
negotiations conclude.

The two sides began their bargaining session at about 5 p.m.
yesterday in Weymouth, at the offices of the Labor Guild of the Archdiocese
of Boston. News of the agreement came at about 3 a.m.

Like many newspapers, the Globe has been hard-hit by the migration of
readers to the Internet and the deep national recession. The Globe is
projected to lose $85 million this year without significant cost savings,
according to the Times Co.

As negotiations unfolded, though, contract concessions,
particularly on job guarantees, had become as important as the financial
givebacks to the Times Co. Eliminating lifetime job guarantees would give
management more flexibility in shrinking its staff.

Advertising revenues for the Times Co.'s New England Media Group,
dominated by the Globe, plunged more than 30 percent in the first three
months of this year from the same period in 2008.

Unions have resisted giving up the guarantees, arguing they paid for
them with major concessions in years past. For example, the guild gave up a
no-layoff clause to get the lifetime guarantees in a contract ratified in
1994.

The issue, however, has had divided guild members, creating tensions
between young and old, advertising and editorial, union leadership and
members.

Some guild employees had argued that company is going back on a
promise made in exchange for significant concessions by the guild.

Others, including some of those with guaranteed positions, think
everything should be on the table to save the paper.

The union position has been that the current contract already has a
mechanism for the company to modify the job guarantees. Under the contract,
the company can invoke an emergency hardship clause that would send the
issue to a third-party an arbitrator.

Robert Weisman of the Globe staff contributed to this report.