By: Mark Fitzgerald The Globe and Mail said its largest union, representing editorial, sales, circulation and maintenance workers, overwhelmingly ratified a new five-year contract Monday.
More than 85% of votes cast by members of Local 87-M of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union approved the pact -- but the details of the contract are not being released publicly Monday.
"We're very pleased to have reached an agreement with the union that acknowledges the changing realities of the media industry," Globe and Mail Publisher and CEO Phillip Crawley said in a statement. "The Globe and Mail is committed to making tough business decisions now which are needed to ensure our ongoing success in a challenging economic environment and an evolving media sector. Now we can focus all our energies on continuing with The Globe's long-term strategies."
The union represents nearly 500 employees at the paper, and reached the agreement with management bargainers just as a strike deadline of midnight Friday was approaching.
Union members had authorized leadership to call a strike, and at the end of June voted overwhelmingly to reject a proposal management had characterized as its best and final offer.
That five-year contract proposals would have frozen wages for the rest of this year and 2010, with a 1.5% increase in 2011, 2% in 2012, and final increase of 2.5% in 2013. The offer also gave employees the choice of keeping their present pension plan but with an increased employee contribution or shifting to a new plan with a lower payment at retirement.
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