Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

Who won the Globe showdown?

Dont Quote Me — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:40:54 GMT

My first thought, when I heard about the tentative agreement struck by management and the Boston Newspaper

The impasse-ible dream

Dont Quote Me — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:35:23 GMT

So: now that the Boston Newspaper Guild has voted no , the New York Times Co. can just declare an impasse

Baron responds

Dont Quote Me — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 02:44:16 GMT

In a blog post last night, I argued that the New York Times Co.'s poor diplomacy was responsible

Mathis exits Times Co.

Dont Quote Me — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:10:54 GMT

Catherine Mathis , the Times Co.'s senior VP for corporate communications, is leaving her post for a similar job at Standard & Poors. It'll be interesting to see if--in the wake of Mathis's departure--the Times Co.'s perplexing communications

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

Ifvindqf — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:13:23 GMT

iNtsvx comment6 ,

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

SoCoastWriter — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:11:11 GMT

This is a sad day. There are no winners here. But how anyone who voted "no" could actually think that the NYTimes would go back to the table is beyond me. Gone are the days when this Guild actually had leverage...or any other Guild, for that matter. The industry is collapsing all around us. The lesser of two evils would have been to say 'yes.' I dunno about you, but a 10 percent cut is hard to handle, but a 23 percent hit will now be devastating to many families. Stay tuned for more layoffs, too.

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

Mike Riggs — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:50:21 GMT

As a professional journalist who doesn't benefit from the protection of a cartel, I would advise union members at the <em>Globe</em> to suck it up. Y'all are still making exponentially more than those of us without collective bargaining power--and would continue to do so after pay cuts.

Public watchdogs or no, playing pigheaded won't shield unionists from market realities.

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

Upside_potential — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:41:54 GMT

Forget the job guarantees?

Kind of a hard thing to forget. It was the line in the sand for Guild leadership.

I think they should have had a rule: If you're a "reporter" and your byline hasn't appeared in print in the past month, you don't get to vote.

A pox on both their houses, methinks.

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

Elaine Hopkins — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:37:15 GMT

Any newspaper or other business that has a union deserves one, for treating its employees badly.

Also, as JFK's dad once said, all businessmen are stupid SOBs. They'll loot their companies, drive them into the ground for private gain (GM, Chrysler, Penn Central RR, Enron, ad nauseum) then wonder why the workers don't volunteer to take pay cuts and work longer hours. The NYTimes Co. apparently is no different.

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

Gus — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:51:55 GMT

Re travel budgets, how many people did the Globe, a medium-sized regional newspaper with declining circulation that is losing money, send to the Beijing Olympics -- and at what cost and justification? (They sent 20). And why do we not ever hear griping about the wily Taylor family, which seems to have walked away with a cool $1.1 billion when it sold the Globe? Are they not part of the current problem?

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

Former Globie — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:45:31 GMT

Forget the job guarantees. What would have been fair and equitable would be for the guild members and the exempt (management) to bear the same amount of burden keeping the ship afloat. A larger pay cut for the guild, and cutting off their 401k and 401a contributions and killing benefits like vision and dental while jacking up the cost of health insurance, and increasing management's contributions and leaving other benefits intact, killed it. In many departments, guild journalists work alongside exempt journalists, doing the exact same work.

Had management said, "We're cutting our pay X percent and doing this to our benefits, and we want you to agree to cut your pay and benefits the same percentage," it would have passed with flying colors and avoided the "us against them" mentality. Period.

Very telling that the Globe statement said they are "available to meet any day this week to review implementation of the pay cut." They need to backpedal and present something fair to the guild people, who, need I remind everyone, haven't seen a raise or bonus in going on five years, while the exempts have received both regularly.

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

upside_potential — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:18:28 GMT

There's plenty of blame to go around. How about the 20 percent who couldn't even be bothered to vote?

You have to figure the 100-plus with lifetime guarantees are solid no votes, so the margin isn't really that close among members who don't have that little silver bullet to protect.

I can't imagine it's very comfortable in the cafeteria today where the guild members are the outliers around all the other unions.

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

edsox15 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:36:14 GMT

Sebastian, I respectfully disagree. I think Adam is spot-on in his assesment. I too, am a Guild member, and while I don't think the Union leadership did a bang up job by any means, most of the fault lands at the feet of management. They had more than a few opportunities to come to the rank and file and show some understanding toward the strain we have all been under, (see Gatehouse) and failed miserably. It's going to get a whole lot uglier in the immediate future and no one, on either side, can claim any sort of victory tonight.

re: Globe contract rejection: point the finger at the Times Co.

sebastian melmoth — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:54:41 GMT

This will go down in history as one of the worst performances by union leadership in newspaper history. I say this is a devoted 27 year member of the newspaper guild.