New Deal May Aid Globe, Guild As Talks Begin Again

MELISSA TRUJILLO

BOSTON (AP) — The New York Times Co. has restarted negotiations with the Boston Globe's largest labor union over how best to cut $10 million in annual costs despite having already achieved those savings with a 23 percent pay cut.

The Times Co., the Globe's parent company, still has reason to find common ground with the Boston Newspaper Guild, especially if members approve a contract that would erase lifetime job guarantees, calm an angry newsroom and avoid a costly legal fight over the mandated pay cut.

Fitch Ratings media analyst Mike Simonton said that even though the 23 percent wage cut gives the Times Co. the $10 million it wanted, it does not include other advantages in the original contract proposal — especially the end of the 190 lifetime job guarantees. Those were made in exchange for other concessions in 1994, shortly after the Times Co. bought the Globe for $1.1 billion.

Eliminating the guarantees that employees can't be laid off without just cause could give the company more flexibility to cut costs, as well as jobs deemed irrelevant or redundant in a changing industry.