Boston Globe Guild OKs $10 million in cuts

The Boston Globe’s Newspaper Guild overwhelmingly approved a package of $10 million in wage and benefit cuts last night, ending more than three months of tense bargaining and brinksmanship.

The Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents nearly 700 editorial, advertising, and business office workers, became the last of the Globe’s major unions to ratify sizable financial and other concessions that the paper’s owner, The New York Times Co., has said it needs to keep operating the 137-year-old paper. The Globe was projected to lose $85 million this year if significant cost reductions were not made, according to the Times Co.

With a turnout of about 80 percent, Guild members voted 366 to 179 to approve the contract, which includes pay cuts, furloughs, and unpaid vacation that reduce earnings by about 9 percent; deep reductions in health and retirement benefits, including a pension freeze; and elimination of lifetime job guarantees for about 170 veteran employees.

“The ratification strengthens the stability of The Boston Globe and Boston.com,’’ Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley said in a note to employees. “Since we now have settled contracts with all our major unions, let me take this opportunity to thank every Globe employee, union and nonunion, for the sacrifices you have made to meet the unprecedented challenges we faced at the beginning of the year.’’

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