By what Guild president Lou Mleczko's describes as a "good margin," members of the unions representing the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit News and the janitorial staff passed a 3-year contract, ending six months of negotiations, with the Detroit Media Partnership.
Unions representing pressmen, mailers and the Teamsters also passed their proposed contracts.
"In light of the difficulty of the newspaper industry and the situation in the state of Michigan, we feel it's as good a contract as we could have gotten," said Mleczko after the union members' votes were tallied at about 3 p.m. today.
The contracts will last until 2010.
The negotiations were the most difficult in 30 years, Mleczko said.
The contract retains daily overtime, which the company proposed eliminating.
However, health-care costs have increased, and employees won't get a company match for 401K retirement investments.
Diane Weiss, a Free Press photo editor who worked on the union negotiations committee, said members' votes were crucial.
"We need the company to see that we care about the contract," she said.
The unions represent 1,409 employees of the partnership, the Free Press and the Detroit News.
The media partnership manages business operations for the Free Press, which is owned by Gannett Co. Inc., and the News, owned by Media News Group.
[Source: Amber Hunt in Detroit Free Press]
Mleczko is a former BJ staffer.
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