By: Joe Strupp The New York Times reached a tentative agreement with the Newspaper Guild to cut union workers pay by 5% as part of a plan announced last month that includes 10 furlough days for staffers, Reuters reported, noting it would save $4.5 million.
"Under the agreement, which union members still must ratify for it to take effect, workers would get reduced pay through the end of the year," Reuters reported, citing an internal memo. "Non-union employees at the Times newspaper and other New York Times Co properties had their pay cut earlier this month."
Times' management had declined a Guild proposal to guarantee that there would be no layoffs during the period that the pay cut was in effect, the story added.
"Our agreement achieves most of the safeguards we wanted," New York Guild President Bill O'Meara said in a statement. "But it will not erase the possibility of job cuts ... even though management tried to sell us their proposal as a way of avoiding layoffs."
The Times announced the cuts in March, along with 100 layoffs, as part of an effort to save money as it faces declining advertising revenue and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, Reuters reported.
A Times spokeswoman was not available for comment.
The deal comes as the Times Company negotiates with unions at its Boston Globe, which has threatened to closed if $20 million in cost-cutting is not achieved.
The Times Company is also trying to sell its stake in New England Sports Ventures, the holding company that owns the Boston Red Sox professional baseball team.
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