After tense negotiations, the Newark Star-Ledger and its four trade unions have reached a tentative deal that will avert a shutdown of New Jersey’s largest paper.
The deal will result in 71 buyouts, a pension plan freeze and no wage hikes through mid-2017, according to sources. For the first time, workers will be asked to cover 25 percent of their health care costs.
“All of us are happy we are going to continue to publish,” said Star-Ledger Publisher Richard Vezza, who would not comment on the details, pending ratification votes expected to be held over the next 10 days by the four locals.
The paper — part of Advance Publications and owned by the Newhouse family — lost roughly $19 million last year and is expected to lose about the same amount this year.
Advance, which also owns Condé Nast, had threatened to cease publication unless the pressman, mailers, engravers and machinists agreed to $9 million in concessions. The unions represent around 260 workers.
The tentative agreements appear to have fallen short of the $9 million target but one source estimated it will save the company about $7.5 million annually.
The Mailers Local 1100 is expected to absorb the bulk of the buyouts with about 50 cuts from its 195 person workforce. They were the last of the locals to come to an agreement late on Thursday. And unlike some of the other unions, the survivors in the mailers unit will not get one time signing bonuses for ratifying a new contract.
The antiquated engravers, down to only two members, will see one go. The pressman will lose about 17 to buyouts, and the machinists will see three of their 12 members exit with buyouts.
“There were a lot of sacrifices made,” said Ed Shown, head of the pressmen Local 8-N of the Graphic Communications Conference and also the head of the Star-Ledger Council of Unions. “A lot of hard decisions had to be made and there are still a lot of unhappy campers.”
“But in the end, everybody was on the same page,” he said. “They wanted to keep the paper going.”