By: Joe Strupp A reworked Newspaper Guild contract proposal at The Boston Globe, which now includes revenue from the paper's Web site in a controversial formula tying proposed salary hikes to the paper's revenue, will be voted on by the entire membership on Dec. 12, the union said this week.
The original four-year contract, rejected last month by a vote of 307 to 223, had excluded revenue from boston.com, the paper's profitable Web site, from a proposed wage hike provision. That provision stipulates that none of the contract's proposed weekly wage increases, slated to kick in nearly every six months, would be instituted if the paper's revenue for the period of the raise was less than the same period a year earlier.
After members rejected the initial contract, and gathered dozens of signatures on a petition against it, the new version was recently agreed to by union and management leaders. It includes boston.com revenue in the provision calculations, as well as bringing 39 boston.com employees under the guild representation, the union stated. The guild currently represents some 1,000 Globe employees.
In a related matter, The Globe reported today that some union members at the Boston Herald voted to oppose a plan from Herald Publisher Pat Purcell to change that group's contract and institute a two-year wage freeze. Union members from the paper's advertising, circulation and business side factions voted Thursday to reject the idea, which the paper claims would save $2.8 million.
The Globe reported that editorial employees at the paper had approved the freeze, adding that Purcell has said layoffs could be expected.
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