US News

BOSTON GLOBE UNION VOTES ON PAY, BENEFIT CUTS

Reporters and editors at The Boston Globe faced the choice Monday of accepting $10 million in annual wage and benefit concessions or risking even deeper pay cuts and the possible closure of the 137-year-old newspaper.

The Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents 700 editorial, advertising and business employees, voted on a new contract negotiated after the Globe’s parent company, The New York Times Co., said it needed $20 million in annual savings from Globe unions – half from the Guild – to avoid shutting down the newspaper.

Polls closed at 8 p.m., said Guild President Dan Totten. He declined to comment until the results are released, likely around 10 p.m. EDT.

Under the contract, Guild members would see an 8.3 percent wage cut, five-day unpaid furloughs and cuts in health care benefits, 401(k) contributions and pensions.

The contract also would eliminate lifetime job guarantees for 190 Guild workers. Most got the promises in exchange for other concessions in a contract ratified in 1994, shortly after the Times Co. bought the Globe for $1.1 billion.

If the Guild rejects the proposal, the Times Co. has said it would try to impose a 23 percent wage cut. It also could follow through on its threat to close the Globe, which would require giving 60 days notice to employees and the state.

Donovan Slack, the newspaper’s city hall bureau chief, said more than 200 people had already cast their ballots by 10 a.m. Monday, two hours after the polls opened. There were no campaign signs at the polling place at the Globe’s headquarters, and Slack described the atmosphere as quiet and somber.

She voted to approve the contract.

“I was up most of the night for the last few weeks, just really conflicted about this decision,” said Slack, a six-year veteran at the Globe. “On the one hand, it seems like a really unfair deal and a lot of people voting ‘no’ made me waver. But then when it really came down to it, I don’t have room to gamble with a quarter of my pay and I have no doubt that the New York Times Co. will institute that pay cut immediately.”

Shirley Goh, a copy editor who has worked at the Globe for four years, said she also feared the possibility of a 23 percent wage cut, but didn’t want that to sway her vote either way.

“It’s definitely a possibility, and of course I’m worried,” said Goh, who planned to vote ‘no’ when she went into work later Monday for an evening shift. “But I didn’t want that to be the main reason I voted. I looked at the proposal and all the provisions, that’s basically what I voted on.”

She said she didn’t believe executives and managers have felt the same strain their employees have. The Guild said last week that executives saw a 5 percent pay cut, but through only the end of the year.

“I think that it’s important to make a stand,” Goh said. “I think that it would be more fair if the managers took cuts that are similar to ours.”

A spokeswoman for the Times Co. said the Globe would release a statement after polls closed. A message for Globe spokesman Bob Powers was not immediately returned.

The Guild’s leadership has not endorsed the contract, instead agreeing only to allow its members to vote on it.

The Times Co. demanded the $20 million in annual concessions amid an increasingly dire financial situation at the Globe.

The newspaper has struggled as readers migrated to the Internet, advertising revenues declined drastically and circulation fell. The Globe had $50 million in operating losses in 2008 and had been projected to lose $85 million this year.

“It is essential and non-negotiable that we achieve $10 million in cost savings from the Guild,” Publisher P. Steven Ainsley wrote in a memo to Guild members last week. “Our financial situation is too urgent and further delays to resolution are not an option.”

Six other Globe unions have approved concessions – but they hinge on the Guild’s ratification of new terms.

Teamsters Local 259, which represents delivery drivers, voted 89-69 Sunday in favor of roughly $2.5 million in wage and benefit cuts. A machinists union representing fewer than 30 employees rejected concessions that day, the first union to do so. But Powers said the decision does not affect the $20 million in savings needed from other bargaining units.