BOSTON – The Boston Globe’s largest union voted Monday to approve a new contract containing $10 million in concessions to owner The New York Times Co. after three months of wrangling, potentially clearing the way for the paper to be sold, Bloomberg News reported.
“A new contract puts all the details in place and there are no loose ends that a buyer would have to worry about down the road,” Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., told Bloomberg. “A buyer knows they’re taking on a union that can compromise.”
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The Boston Newspaper Guild’s nearly 700 editorial, advertising and business workers voted 366 to 179 in favor of the package, which includes a roughly 9 percent total cut in pay; increases in health insurance premiums; the elimination of company contributions to 401(k) plans; a pension freeze; and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees given in the 1990s to about 170 longtime Globe employees.
Guild workers’ pay was cut 23 percent on June 14 after members rejected a previous. Most of the lost wages will be reimbursed, The Globe reported today.
The Globe has faced an uncertain future since the Times Co. threatened to close it last spring after disclosing that the paper was on track to lose $85 million by the end of 2009.
Every Globe union has now approved concessions on pay and benefits, and a number of prominent Bostonians are said to be interested in purchasing the paper, the largest in New England. Earlier this month, the Times Co. delayed the deadline to submit bids for the paper until after the union vote had taken place.
“It has been a long and difficult period for everyone and we hope that we can now work with prospective buyers to help The Boston Globe and Boston.com carry on with its vital mission to promote good journalism and protect free speech,” the union said following the vote in an unsigned statement on its Web site.
“The ratification strengthens the stability of The Boston Globe and Boston.com,” Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley wrote in a memo to the staff published on Boston.com. “Since we now have settled contracts with all our major unions, let me take this opportunity to thank every Globe employee, union and non-union, for the sacrifices you have made to meet the unprecedented challenges we faced at the beginning of the year.”
The Times Co. also owns the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, but its financial situation is said not to be as weak as The Globe’s.
