The Boston Globe's largest union voted by a nearly two to one margin on Monday to approve pay cuts and other concessions that would save the 137- year-old paper $10 million a year and allow The New York Times Co to sell it.
The Boston Newspaper Guild voted 366-179 in favour of the cuts. “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 carry on with its vital mission to promote good journalism and protect free speech, guild president Dan Totten said.
The agreement ended more than three months of bad blood between the union and the Globe, which had threatened to close the daily, one of the largest and most respected in the United States, if it could not get the concessions.
Under the terms of the deal, union members will take a 5.94 per cent salary cut and other benefits will be scaled back. Union members in June rejected a previous agreement, which would have cut pay by more than 8 per cent. The Globe responded by threatening to cut pay by about 23 per cent before negotiations resumed on the new package.
The guild is the last and largest of several unions to agree to the cuts. With its agreement in hand, the Times Co likely will try to find a buyer for the Globe, which it said probably would make an $85 million operating loss this year.
The Times Co paid $1.1 billion in 1993 to buy the Globe. Now its value, according to analysts, ranges from as high as $250 million to zero. – (Reuters)