The New York Times has reached a tentative agreement with the union at its flagship newspaper to impose a 5 percent pay cut through the end of the year, as the cash-strapped daily continues to find ways to cut costs.
In exchange for ratifying the pay cut, members of the Newspaper Guild will get 10 extra vacation days and will be allowed to roll unused vacation time into next year. If the 1,200 members of the Guild ratify the cut on Monday, it would go into effect Tuesday.
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis confirmed that management and union officials had reached a tentative deal on the 5 percent cut, but declined further comment.
Meanwhile, Newspaper Guild President Bill O’Meara said, “Our agreement achieves most of the safeguards that we wanted.”
The move to cut unionized workers’ salaries follows on the Times’ decision last month to cut non-unionized workers’ pay by 5 percent starting April 1. It also comes as a deadline looms tomorrow for unions at the Times’ Boston Globe to agree to $20 million in concessions or face closing the paper.
Times management said it needed $4.5 million in savings from the Guild, and said a 5 percent salary cut would achieve that goal. However, the company did not guarantee a wage reduction would mean no unionized workers might face job cuts if the Gray Lady’s financial condition worsened.
The company earlier this month reported a $74.5 million, first-quarter loss on a 27 percent plunge in advertising revenue, and CEO Janet Robinson predicted the ad picture wasn’t looking any better in the second quarter.
In addition, the company has a scant $34 million in cash available for purposes other than paying down debt.