Globe management and Guild resume talks

Boston Globe management and the Boston Newspaper Guild resumed negotiations late this afternoon, focusing on the size of the pay cut the union’s members would have to take, according to union members with knowledge of the negotiations.

Guild members just eight days ago rejected a $10 million package of concessions that included an 8.4 percent pay cut, as well as deep reductions in health and retirement benefits. The size of the pay cut was viewed as a key reason for the proposal's narrow defeat.

Negotiators have spent much of the past day haggling over the value of the concessions included in the package, scrubbing numbers to see if additional savings can be found to reduce the size of the pay cut, according to union members.

The Times Co. has insisted that the Guild provide $10 million in savings, so any reduction in the pay cut has to be covered by savings in other areas. The Guild represents nearly 700 editorial, advertising, and business office employees at the Globe.

The bargaining resumed following a marathon session yesterday that lasted more than 12 hours and stretched past midnight. The Guild is the only major union that has not approved concessions sought by the Times Co., which in early April threatened to shutter the money-losing paper unless it could gain a total of $20 million in savings from Globe unions.

After the Guild rejected the concessions last week, the company imposed a 23 percent wage cut to gain the $10 million it says it needs from the union. The wage cut went into effect Sunday.

The Guild has challenged the move, filing an unfair-labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board. The first hearing was scheduled for today, but the Guild postponed it.

Robert Gavin, Globe Staff