Guild Members Agree to Modesto Cuts

By: Newspaper Guild members at The Modesto Bee have voted to take pay cuts of up to 7.5% to save jobs at the central California paper.

Wendy Mejia, who heads the Guild's local at The Modesto Bee, said a majority of members voted to accept the deal Monday.

She said Bee managers still plan to cut 11 of the 50 full-time Guild-covered positions in the editorial department. Another 10 jobs would have been in jeopardy if the union had rejected the wage cuts.

Guild-covered employees earning at least $65,000 a year would have their pay cut 7.5% while employees making between $50,000 and $64,999 would lose 5%.

The agreement also allows the newspaper's management to require employees to take a week of unpaid leave.