Key Globe newsroom staffers say tentative Guild-NYT deal in danger of failing

Some key Globe newsroom staffers are circulating a petition warning that the tentative deal reached earlier this month between the Newspaper Guild and the New York Times Company is in danger of failing and asking that the 10 percent wage cut be reduced to five percent.

The Globe reports that one of the sponsors of the petition is Beth Daley, a reporter and union delegate who has been one of the more outspoken newsroom employees about the paper's standoff with the Times, its corporate parent. Daley told fellow reporter Robert Gavin that the proposed contract is in "extraordinary danger" of being rejected.

With the Globe projected to post an $85 million operating loss this year, the Times has demanded that the paper's unions agree to $20 million in concessions (including $10 million from the Guild) or face a complete shutdown of the newspaper.

The tentative agreement reached earlier this month calls for a wage cut and a furlough that would equal about 10 percent of an employee's pay, plus other concessions on benefits, days off, and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees.

Globe employees, however, are reportedly angry that the Times has agreed to just a 5 percent wage cut with its own unions in New York. Recent comments by Times columnist Tom Friedman about his apparently unlimited expense budget haven't helped either.