The Boston Globe is owned by the New York Times. Last month, the NYT threatened to shut down the Boston Globe unless Globe's union workers agree to give up $20,000,000 that belongs to them under contract. Essentially, they were giving Globe workers "an offer they couldn't refuse". When the NYT growled, six of the seven unions involved, caved in and quickly agreed to make a deal. Thereafter, the Globe issued a statement, "We are very pleased to have reached agreements with six of the seven unions that were involved in recent negotiations."

The largest union, Boston Newspaper Guild (BNG) held out until the New York Times filed the required notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law to close the doors of the Globe within 60 days. The offer they couldn't refuse? - It's either give up your wages, benefits, pensions and job security, already under contract, or lose your jobs. It was a knife to the throat no matter how you look at it. On May 4, the NYT withdrew the threat after all the unions, including BNG indicated they would accept massive concessions.

The NYT hands the ball to Globe Management

Steven Ainsley, Globe Publisher

Now that the NYT has softened the workers up with their extortion message, the Boston Globe is following up by putting teeth to the threat. The Globe is now demanding that BNG workers accept a 23 percent paycut. They are also demanding that members of this one union accept a $10 million cut in wages and benefits and eliminations of permanent employment guarantees and other concessions.

Steven Ainsley, Globe publisher, bullied the workers on Thursday, stating that the newspaper "cannot be a viable business given our current losses". Then he restated the NYT threat of shutting down the Globe if the BNG rejects their offer when the workers vote on Monday, June 8. Meanwhile, the five smaller unions at the Globe—representing mailers, pressman and other workers—have voted to approve concessions contracts. Teamsters Local 259, representing some 220 truck drivers and delivery platform workers, are voting Sunday, June 7, on a tentative agreement that includes $2.5 million in cuts.

Totten/BNG Leaders Respond

The Globe is demanding that the BNG workers take a 10.3% pay cut, 5 days off without pay, elimination of their 401(k) funds, cuts in management contributions to their pension funds and more than a 50% increase in the workers' contributions to health care and elimination of permanent employment.

On June 3rd, Daniel Totten, president of BNG sent a letter to members of the union stating:

"Guild members haven't seen a pay raise in four years. And they are well prepared to take a pay cut to help preserve the Globe and its mission. Management, on the other hand, received healthy bonus payments in February 2009--just weeks before New York threatened to shut down the Globe.

"Indeed, while this entire process began with one threat, the Times Company now hopes to finish things with another--the prospect of an immediate 23-percent pay cut.

"The company's best offer to Guild members effectively cuts pay 10.3 percent forever. Management, however, will endure a 5 percent pay cut only through December 31. Guild members have been preparing for significant pension and retirement plan cuts, including an end to any 401k match. Unbelievably, the Times Company has actually boosted the matching contribution for management 401k plans by 66 percent."

According to FAIR, Totten compared Globe/NYT managers with those of other newspapers in trouble. He cited a deal Gatehouse Media New England made with its workers in which "senior managers will shoulder the largest paycuts (up to 15%)". Gatehouse Media owns 100 newspapers in Massachusetts. He also cited the Boston Phoenix owners who "also reserved the biggest hits for top management in a recent round of costcutting." Totten notes that "that's one way to cope with such a challenge--sharing the pain and being a true partner with workers. It's just not the Times Company's way."

BNG leadership: Their performance and their money

Daniel Totten, President, BNG

While complaining about management demands, Totten and union leadership didn't have the courage to make a recommendation to BNG members for Monday's vote. Further weakening the position of the workers, the letter presents these draconian pay and benefit cuts as inevitable, reinforcing the effect of the threats of the New York Times. The BNG leadership also suggested the possibility of renegotiating if members reject the demands of the Globe on Monday.

While Totten is bemoaning the fact that Globe workers haven't had a pay raise in 4 years, the Boston Herald is reporting that Totten himself has received "generous pay hikes over the last 3 years, according to federal filings".

One blogspotter claims, "Collectively, the pay [increases] of the Guild’s seven executive committee officers has almost doubled since 2005, jumping from $95,739 to $178,655 last year. Records show that Totten’s Guild salary has jumped 12 percent in three years, from $87,482 in 2006 to $97,929 in 2007 to $98,076 in 2008."

Individual members stand tall 

One section of BNG members responded with a petition that called on the owners to drop pay cuts from 10.3 to 5%. They argued that their paycut should be no greater than the 5 percent being imposed on non-union managers and other employees.

Globe reporter Brian Mooney doesn't buy the NYT threat to shut down the Boston Globe. He's been urging his fellow Boston Newspaper Guild members to vote no this Monday. Below, he states his confidence that they won't follow through with the threat:

"During the course of negotiations, the company has repeatedly engaged in punitive, bad-faith bargaining and basically committed an act of corporate terrorism with its threat to close the paper. They have traumatized their own employees, their employees' families, and the wider community that cares about and depends on this newspaper.

"I think we've put to bed the notion that they can afford to make good on that threat, because the Times Company's own finances are so fragile, the cost of closing us would wreck the parent company. But the damage is done."

In Mooney's memo to union members, he stated,

"The New York Times Co. wants you to slit your own throats and take money out of your pockets so Tom Friedman (and others in New York) can travel in style and at great expense -- and then brag about it. The Times (not the Globe) lost $74.5 million last quarter and will lose a bundle in this quarter."

(ed. note: correction - actually it was the Times Co. which includes the Globe that lost the bundle - lmb)

New York Times huffs and puffs

Speaking for the NYT, Catherine Mathis responded bullishly to BNG rank and file resistance in a letter to Adam Reilly at the Boston Phoenix:

"Closure is a very real path for the Company to take. We have said that we need to achieve $20 million in savings from our unions in Boston. At the end of the ratification process (the drivers vote on Sunday and the Guild votes on Monday), we need to have secured the full amount. With the Guild we have two different paths to achieve savings of $10 million. One, ratification of the contract. Two, implementation of a 23% wage reduction. The Guild seems to believe it can reject the contract, prevent implementation and thereby force further negotiation. That's not right. Time is of the essence."

Time for all workers to walk tall

Writing for WSWS, Kate Randall correctly notes: "Boston Globe employees—journalists, editorial staff, pressman, mailers, truck drivers and other workers—are not responsible for the newspaper’s financial situation. The crisis in the newspaper industry is an indictment of the profit system itself, and the deteriorating global position of American capitalism."

Randall concludes,

At the Globe, the leaderships of the Boston Newspaper Guild, Teamsters and other unions have demonstrated their willingness to cooperate with the Times Co. and Globe management in the decimation of workers’ jobs and benefits. The BNG’s presentation of the $10 million concessions to the membership must be answered with a resounding “no” vote. Teamsters Local 259 members must also reject the $2.5 million concessions pact before them.

"A rejection of the concessions contracts being presented by union leaders can be only the first step in the fight to defend jobs and working conditions at the Globe. Workers must break with these old organizations and begin the building of independent rank-and-file committees that will organize new forms of struggle—including mass demonstrations, strikes, and occupations."

Make no mistake, we would not moisten an eye to see the final collapse of the Boston Globe and New York Times and the entire capitalist media. At the same time, those sentiments do not conflict with our support for the workers in these corrupt media corporations. We agree with Globe Reporter, Brian Mooney and with Kate Randall. The collective decision of the Globe employees will resonate among workers throughout the country in this era of increased union-busting and intimidation by the corporations. It's utterly important that they take a lesson from the workers at GM and other corporations where workers are being trampled under foot. Also, it's just as important that workers revolt against their leadership when it becomes obvious that their leaders are in bed with management.

If the Globe workers do not stand together, confront their union leaders, and call the bluff of the New York Times in their votes tomorrow and Monday, they will lose all leverage to protect their income, jobs and families in the future. The NYT media mafia, that's right - mafia - is smug in their confidence that they've made an offer the workers can't refuse. In reality, regardless of how they vote, it's an offer the workers can never really accept.

READ BIO AND MORE ARTICLES BY LES BLOUGH

UPDATE JUNE 10, 2009

June10, 2009
Union files labor complaint
Boston Globe
By Robert Gavin

The Boston Globe's largest union said it filed unfair labor practice charges against the company yesterday, as Globe management insisted it would impose a 23 percent wage cut beginning Sunday.

The Boston Newspaper Guild's action, filed with the National Labor Relations Board, was announced at a membership meeting last night. It follows the union's narrow rejection Monday of a $10 million package of concessions that included wage reductions totaling about 10 percent; deep cuts in health and retirement benefits such as a pension freeze; and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees. After the vote, the paper's owner, The New York Times Co., declared an impasse and moved to impose the wage cuts it says it needs to keep operating the money-losing paper.

Guild leaders also said they asked the NLRB to seek a court order to block the Times Co. from imposing the wage cut while the case is being litigated, a process that could take months. Such court orders are rare in these cases, according to legal specialists, and certainly unlikely before the pay cut goes into effect Sunday. The Guild won't have its first hearing before the board until Tuesday.

"What's really clear is this is going to happen," said reporter Donovan Slack. "Covering a quarter of my paycheck beyond a few weeks is untenable. Beyond a few months is impossible."

In addition to the NLRB complaint, the Guild is also pressing to resume negotiations. Guild leaders are calling for the parties to enter into mediation to resolve the dispute, and will meet Monday with Globe management.

"This is very, very difficult for all our members. We know there's a lot of fear and nervousness," Guild president Daniel Totten said after the meeting attended by about 100 members. "We want to get a deal."

But Globe management said yesterday there's no other deal to be had. Globe spokesman Robert Powers said the purpose of Monday's meeting is "to discuss the implementation of the 23 percent wage cut."

In a letter to Totten yesterday, Gregory Thornton, the Globe's chief negotiator, said management has "no time and therefore no interest" to bargain further with the Guild. The letter, written in response to a Guild request to rescind the wage cut and reopen bargaining, said management believes further discussions would be "futile."

"The parties have bargained and are at impasse," Thornton said in a letter to Totten. "Therefore, the Globe will not rescind its 'declaration of impasse' or withdraw its notice of implementation."

In an earlier letter to Thornton, Totten said the union believes the pay cut violates labor laws, as well as the terms of its contract, and as a result "The Guild has the opportunity to negotiate as to the wage reduction alternative proposal."

Meanwhile, a group of Globe reporters sent a letter yesterday to Times Co. chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. imploring him to intervene in the contract dispute.

"We're asking you to call off the lawyers, head off a bitter fight, and come forward with a plan that would attract a bit more support from the Guild," the reporters wrote.

Catherine Mathis, the Times Co. spokeswoman, declined comment.

But the Times Co. issued a statement yesterday saying that with the deep wage cut imposed on guild members, the company removed its threat to close the Globe because it had achieved a total of $20 million in concessions from its unions.

Robert Gavin can be reached at gavin@globe.com.

Boston Globe