Union, Globe have tentative deal on cost cuts
The Boston Globe and its largest union tonight reached a tentative agreement on $10 million in wage and benefit cuts, Boston Newspaper Guild president Daniel Totten said.
The deal follows three months of bitter labor talks that threatened to close the 137-year-old paper.
‘‘It’s been an exhausting process and a very difficult process for the members,’’ Totten said.
The tentative agreement comes a little more than two weeks after the Boston Newspaper Guild narrowly rejected a similar package of concessions, and 10 days after the company, in response, imposed a 23 percent wage cut on nearly 700 editorial, advertising, and business office employees represented by the union.
The new proposal differs in only a few areas from the package that Guild members voted down June 8. The main concessions demanded by the paper’s owner, The New York Times Co., remain in place: getting $10 million in total savings, eliminating lifetime job guarantees for about 170 veteran Guild employees, and freezing the pension plan.
The proposal lowers the pay cut to 5.9 percent from the earlier 8.4 percent by making additional benefit reductions, which were not disclosed.
Under the current contract, Globe reporters earn from about $40,000 to a little over $70,000, depending on experience, with many making top scale.
The pact still includes five days of unpaid furlough, which would increase the total salary loss to about 8 percent compared to about 10 percent in the rejected offer.
Guild employees will live with the 23 percent pay cut for the next month while the contract awaits ratification. Guild bylaws require 30 days’ notice before a vote, which was scheduled last week for July 20.
If the contract is ratified, the company would pay Guild employees most of the difference between the imposed 23 percent pay cut and the smaller negotiated one. To cover the cost, the company will make a one-time cut to its union healthcare contributions, which could mean higher premiums for Guild members.
‘‘The 23 percent pay cut was by no means the preferred route to reducing our labor expenses,’’ the Globe’s publisher, P. Steven Ainsley, said in statement. ‘‘We wanted to reach an agreement that would cause the least hardship for our employees.’’
The new agreement is expected to be approved because, unlike the earlier offer, union leaders agreed to recommend it. The earlier offer failed by 12 votes out of more than 500 cast.
Both sides had hoped to reach agreement yesterday, but handling the pay cut during the ratification period proved a last-minute stumbling block. Guild leaders sought to spare members from the losing nearly one-fourth of their paychecks, but the company would not delay the pay cut because it could affect the implementation of concessions approved by other Globe unions.
The Guild is the only major union that has not approved concessions sought by the Times Co., which in April threatened to shutter the money-losing paper unless it could gain a total of $20 million in savings from Globe unions. Unions representing press operators, mailers and delivery truck drivers, as well as several smaller unions, have ratified wage and benefit cuts totaling slightly more than $10 million. Other unions also gave up lifetime job guarantees held by some of their members.
The Times Co. has since withdrawn its threat to close New England’s largest daily, which was projected to lose $85 million this year unless significant cuts were made.
In addition to the union concessions, Globe management is relying on additional cost cutting as well as new revenues to right the struggling newspaper. The Globe has shut its Billerica printing plant, saving about $18 million, while nonunion managers are taking salary, bonus, and benefit cuts worth about $8 million.
The newspaper has also increased subscription and newsstand prices, and launched initiatives to boost online advertising revenues.
‘‘The very early results from our recent circulation price increases are positive,’’ said Globe spokesman Robert Powers. ‘‘We’re now heavily focused on generating digital revenues both among consumers and advertisers.’’
(By Robert Gavin, Globe staff)
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