Posted on 05/03/2009 8:42:54 PM PDT by raccoonradio
Boston Globe negotiators gave union leaders copies of a 60-day shutdown warning notice they said they would file Monday if talks were not successful with one hour left to go before the midnight deadline.
The notice, required by the federal Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, gives workers 60 days warning before the closure of a business.
“Filing the WARN notice is a difficult step that we would like to avoid but, unfortunately, given the state of the negotiations, it is one we must be prepared to take if negotiations are not successful,” the Globe said in a statement.
Negotiators for the Boston Globe’s largest union were hopeful earlier tonight that what they called “tremendous sacrifices” would be enough to save the beleaguered broadsheet, but the head of another union was worried the clock would run out on the 137-year-old paper.
The Globe reported on its Web site tonight that management had called the heads of the paper’s three other major unions to the site of ongoing negotiations with the Guild. They were told to “enter negotiations or receive a message from the company,” union officials told the Globe.
“They are still talking numbers. Negotiations are continuing,” said Jeremy Crockford, a spokesman for the Boston Newspaper Guild, yesterday afternoon.
Martin Callaghan, head of the pressmen’s union, said the Globe’s pressmen, mailers and drivers met with management for 16 hours until 3 a.m. yesterday without reaching an agreement.
“We’ve been told to stay by the phone,” said Callaghan late last night.
The New York Times [NYT] Co., which owns the Globe, has threatened to close the paper if its 13 labor unions cannot come up with $20 million in cuts.
Negotiations with the Guild, the paper’s largest union, began around 11 a.m. today at the Sacred Heart School in Weymouth.
Earlier in the day, the Guild released a statement: “The Boston Newspaper Guild has met what the New York Times Company and Globe management said they needed by offering deep cuts in our members’ pay and benefits.”
The Guild, which represents some 732 workers, is expected to account for half of the cuts, or $10 million. After failing to reach agreement by the original midnight May 1 deadline, the unions were granted a 48-hour extension.
“While final agreement will require further negotiations, the Guild enters today’s talks having now offered tremendous sacrifices that should be more than adequate to save the Boston Globe,” yesterday’s Guild statement said. “We are optimistic the Times Company is genuinely committed to reaching agreement. The Globe’s mission of quality journalism and free speech depend on it.”
But Callaghan said he was “concerned that the clock may run out.”
“When we left at 3 a.m. this morning, they made it abundantly clear that the midnight deadline is firm,” Callaghan said. “They said there will be no further extensions.”
Callaghan said the pressmen, drivers and mailers - the paper’s biggest unions after the Guild - have met management’s monetary demands for cuts. Management wants $2.2 million in cuts from the pressmen, $5 million from the mailers and $2.5 million from the drivers. But there are still several contract language issues holding up the negotiations, said Callaghan, who refused to elaborate. It is believed that the language issues include lifetime job guarantees held by hundreds of union members as well as Times Co. demands for layoffs outside of seniority.
“We’re kind of surprised there are as many language issues as there are,” he said.
The Globe’s fate is coming down to the wire after a month of tension between unions and management.
A Guild-led petition drive and rally to save the paper was followed by a radio ad blitz criticizing managers for not sharing in the unions’ sacrifices.
On April 21, the Times Co. reported a $74 million first-quarter loss - largely due to its flagging New England operations - and the company announced that the Globe and boston.com lost $50 million in 2008 and were expected to lose $85 million this year.
When asked about the paper’s fate late Sunday, Callaghan said: “I think they’ll either reach an agreement or issue WARN notices. I don’t think it’s a close-the-door scenario, but it could be.”
Just moments from a decision?
Also at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243527/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243524/posts
Liberals/unions eating their own. Yum.
Maybe Pat Purcell will buy the Globe and merge the two papers. I’m visualizing a scene in the sports department of the new Boston Herald-Globe: “Gerry [Callahan]? Meet your new cubicle-mate, Dan [Shaughnessy] ...” :)
this is like one of those football games where you only wish both sides could lose!
This is funny. Never once do these idiots discuss WHY people aren’t reading their precious publications.
Please, oh please, oh please. Let them all fail.
I knew this recession was good for something..
Raccoon,
That would be a hoot! How long until Callahan murders Shank under your scenario?
Nick Cafardo and Mike Reiss (both sports writers) are two Globies I do read though.
12:01 when you posted...now when do we hear anything?
11:40pm Update:
http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/news/messenger/
The Boston Newspaper Guild just released this statement.
“In respone to this proposal, the Company tonight provided us with a copy of a notice drafted under the Workers Adjust and Retraining Notification Act. The WARN act requires sixty days advance notice before the closure of a business. The Company has said it is prepared to file this notice in the event negotiations are not successful.
This tactic, while expected, is representative of the bullying manner in which the Times Company has conducted itself during these negotiations. Despite the Company’s hostile tactics, we continue to negotiate in good faith and work diligently toward an acceptable outcome.”
There will be a Monday paper..but who knows how long this wil last...
Jessica Heslam in Herald:
Presses roll for Globe
There will be a Monday Boston Globe. Kevin Toomey, secretary-treasurer of the pressmen’s union, is still waiting to meet with management. He said management had not yet filed a WARN notice with his union.
The paper is printing right now, “there is an a.m . paper,” Toomey said.
Both sides are still here just after midnight.
http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/news/messenger/index.php/2009/05/04/presses-roll-for-globe/
I don’t think most cities can support two dailies any more.
>>The WARN act requires sixty days advance notice before the closure of a business
But does that mean the Globe could lay off a bunch of people and still be a “business” but only publishing online? (or
only a few days a week for a print edition, etc.?) They could limp along for 2 months then shut down
Just 60 days notice? That simply isn’t enough time to plan the kind of party that such a monumental event deserves.
I’m in Hollywood, so it’s 9:01 pm when I Blackberried.:)
We all need to stand in Soldiarity with teh Boston Globe workers. They all deserve lifetime employment and raises plus 5 week vacations and 8 weeks after 5 years of service (in spewing propaganda).
Obama should come out and demonize the GREEDY NY Times owners and creditors. Maybe threaten Pinch Sulzberger.
Good luck seeing that happen.
They spew their hateful leftist bile and cannot understand why no one wants to read it. I think this game went on for a little while but Obama’s Depression is killing ad revenues.
Why, I'm shocked they would even consider that! Aren't those guaranteed by the Constitution? </sarc>
IT'S THE NY END TIMES!
How libs treat their union friends. :)
I think they are working on Eastern time deadlines and that is how I see the time posted.
I am exhausted from doing nothing today. Sleep, read, sit by the pool etc. is all I do.
12:35 AM here now and no news since the 11:40 post by the Union...so guess I will hear in the AM if the Globe pulled the plug in 60 days????
Enjoy what is left of your evening.
Same to you, fellow Freeper.
I wonder why.
Heslam of the Herald adds:
“Both sides are still here at Sacred Heart School in Weymouth just after midnight, yet the union is accusing the Times Co. of bullying tactics. The threatened deadline has now come and gone. Nobody is moving, though.”
..and that paper will now cost you a buck if you so choose ($1.50 outside Bos. area). Sundays: $3.50 ($4.00 outside
Boston area)
Herald also boosting prices of daily paper to $1.00 (everywhere); no change in Sunday paper.
Globe changes effective today (Mon 5/4), Herald, next Mon 5/11
Well two things many readers or members of the public may not be aware of. Most newsrooms are unioned. The rest of the paper like pressmen are also unionized.
I love how the WSJ and other writers wax on and on about the joys of illegal aliens. Well many of their writers will be competing against illegals in the job market soon.
The other issue is I think the newsroom or writers are promised LIFETIME employment. Something like university tenure.
Thanks for the update...check in, in the morning.
I had a lifetime subscription to The Duck Book. The terms were clear, the publisher's lifetime, not mine.
I was under the impression that journos are threatened by media outsourcing their more routine writing to India. Not that this is going to save anyone in the long run.
Maybe. It is pretty hard to write some of the stuff from a distance but they probably just rewrite AP stories.
I guess this never stopped Jayson Blair in writing his stories or the kid at the New Republic. They both made up stories, invented people, facts and events.
There is not reason for this paper to survive! Either you print the facts or go out of business. The Globe has long ago decided to print their beliefs and opinions rather than the facts and because of that - they should be bankrupt.
Of course that is also true of the NY Times and almost the Washington Post (They are only half-ass reporters at this time - but they make the NY Times look like amateurs). I know, they are also on the decline but sometimes they actually try to print the facts rather than opinion. I actually don’t expect them to survive either - no loss...
Sports talk radio is too neanderthal for the Globes taste.
As Howie Carr puts it. “All gay all the the time, the Boston Globe”.
This tactic, while expected, is representative of the bullying manner in which the Times Company has conducted itself during these negotiations. Despite the Company’s hostile tactics, we continue to negotiate in good faith and work diligently toward an acceptable outcome.”
Rotsa ruck, rank and file guys.
The "voice" for the 'little guy' are going to screw you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.