By: E&P Staff Shortly before midnight, it emerged that the Boston Globe and its largest guild had agreed to a new contract that hammers out $10 million in cuts while reducing the pay cut from 8.4% to 5.9% (plus a one-week furlough).
Management had instituted a 23% pay cut that remains in effect this month, although the guild says steps are being taken to alleviate it. Other unions at the paper had agreed to their contracts.
It still needs the rank and file vote approval.
The Globe reports as follows.
*
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 ...
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.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here