National Guild Prez: Boston Deal Shows Union 'Can Push Back'

By: Joe Strupp The Boston Newspaper Guild's success in negotiating a new contract with The Boston Globe after voting down a previous offer shows that newspaper unions can demand better treatment, according to Bernie Lunzer, national president of The Newspaper Guild.

"It does demonstrate that there is strength in bargaining," Lunzer told E&P a day after the Boston guild voted 366 to 179 on a new deal. "People can push back and management has to find constructive ways to engage workers. People are correct now to question what management is doing, to pursue more control over their futures."

The Boston guild's new deal includes a 5.94% salary cut, a one-week furlough, a pension freeze and health care cost increase. The previous rejected contract called for smaller benefit cuts and a furlough, but a higher 8.3% salary reduction.

"The local can proudly say that they made some improvements," Lunzer said. "There was more money in this deal, more money at the end of the day. The vote speaks for itself."

Boston is among the few guild locals in the past year to reject contracts that called for concessions. In many cases, from The Denver Post to the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, guild members have approved furloughs, pay cuts and various benefit reductions when management asked.

"People will take concessions and take less when they believe it is being done fairly," says Lunzer. "There is not a [guild contract] situation out there that isn't a difficult one."

But Boston was somewhat different in that the guild rejected an initial offer even amid threats of a shutdown and sale of the paper, a sale that appears inevitable. In recent weeks, guild locals at The Times Union in Albany, N.Y. and The Indianapolis Star have also rejected contract proposals. But leaders in both of those units believe new contracts will be approved.

"Unlike Boston, in Indianapolis and Albany those properties are still making a profit," Lunzer said. He also claims that The New York Times Company, which owns the Globe, used the controversial lifetime job guarantees of some 170 guild members as an unfair issue in the recent bargaining.

The guild agreed to give up that protection in this latest agreement. But Lunzer contends it never should have been given the attention it received. "I think the issue was exploited by New York Times management," he said. "To cause divisiveness."

Lunzer also blamed newspaper management throughout the industry for failing to upgrade technology early on, a move he claims could have avoided some of the financial problems they are now facing.

"Newspapers have been getting hit hard, but there was a period of time that was squandered by management. In terms of research and development, investment and trying to understand the digital side," he says. "The product has been plundered in too many ways, but there is still a great product out there."