The Globe Deal

A deal has been reached between the New York Times Co. and the Boston Globe's largest union.

The Boston Globe's largest union reached a tentative deal with the New York Times Co. shortly after 3 a.m. this morning, agreeing to a substantial pay cut, unpaid furloughs, and modifications to the lifetime job guarantee provisions that protect almost 200 employees in the Boston Newspaper Guild, according to sources familiar with the deal.

With the agreement, the guild, representing more than 600 editorial, advertising, and business office employees, became the last of the newspaper's major unions to agree to concessions with the Times Co.

Emphasis added. Does this mean that almost one-third of the guild employees had lifetime job guarantees? Yikes! The article goes on to say that the lifetime guarantees "was widely considered a roadblock to any potential sale of New England's largest newspaper." Taking the Globe out of the hands of the New York Times Co. can only be viewed as a good thing.

I also got a kick from this nugget - as part of the negotiations the union offered a "lengthening of the workweek from 37.5 to 40 hours". Are you kidding me? My empathy with the Globe workers is almost nil.