The Boston Globe and Boston Globe Employees Association, Local 3245 of The Newspaper Guild-CWA Reach a New Three-Year Labor Agreement

Business Wire, May 26, 1999

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 1999--

The Boston Globe and The Boston Globe Employees Association (BGEA), Local 3245 of The Newspaper Guild - Communications Workers of America - reached a new three-year agreement yesterday. The BGEA ratified the new contract last evening (May 25) by a vote of 537-103. The Union represents approximately 1,100 editorial, advertising, circulation, business office, maintenance and security full- and part-time employees at the newspaper.

The contract covers the years 1998-2000 and provides weekly increases each year of $23 for 1998, $23 for 1999 and $24 for the year 2000. These increases follow the pattern wage settlement reached at the Globe with its Teamster drivers union in April.

The wage package represents a 6.7% increase over three years. In addition, the Union gained additional benefit improvements as quid pro quos for certain contract changes and improvements the Globe sought for increased flexibility and savings in its operations.

The benefit improvements the union received include the following:

The Union increased its eligible yearly salary cap for pension calculation form $55,000 to $65,000 effective upon a signed contract. It also gained an additional 1% match for its members 401(k) contributions (up to a cap of 6% of employee pay contribution) starting in the year 2000.

The Globe also agreed to monthly payments into the Union's Taft-Hartley Health and Welfare Fund, to help defray increasing medical and dental costs of its members, as follows: some $147,000 in 1999, some $230,000 in 2000, and for the first four months of 2001, $78,000.

The parties also agreed to increases over the next three years in shift differential pay for night and "lobster" (overnight) shift workers at the newspaper. In addition, for eligible part-time employees, the Globe agreed as a quid pro quo to one sick day per year and a bereavement day benefit per employee.

The changes the company obtained include:

-- A new job classification of lower-salary, higher-commission, special incentive salespersons for local retail sales accounts;

-- A negotiated 10-year flexible jurisdiction agreement that will allow the Globe to deploy guaranteed employees from another union to work side-by-side with BGEA employees in various advertising, editorial and information systems job classifications. This separate 10-year agreement will permit the Globe to more fully utilize these non-BGEA employees, while also providing job protection to additional BGEA members.

-- A work-sharing agreement with other bargaining units in the company's new imaging center department, where black-and-white and color photographs will be digitally processed.

-- An agreement to end the practice of sharing revenue with photographers for photos sold to the public. The company, in turn, agreed to a special salary adjustment for the affected photographers.

-- The placement of all full-time employees on a payment of wages in arrears basis;

-- An increase in the number of excluded confidential employees at the newspaper; and

-- An increase in the number of hours part-time employees may work before they must be changed to full-time status.

The contract was negotiated and completed after one and one-half years of bargaining. Globe Senior Vice President Gregory L. Thornton, praised the new agreement and the Union's Executive Committee: "This agreement represents a fair overall wage and benefit package for the Union and its members while also addressing each of the major issues raised by the Globe to permit it to successfully sell and promote its products and business and to fully utilize all its employees even as technology eliminates and changes some of their tasks. The Union's Executive Committee and leadership worked hard with their Globe counterparts on mutual problem solving throughout the negotiating process and that is reflected in a solid labor agreement for both parties.

The Boston Globe is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The New York Times Company, a diversified media company including newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations, and electronic information and publishing. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

The Company, which had 1998 revenues of $2.9 billion, publishes The New York Times, The Boston Globe and 21 regional newspapers; publishes three magazines, including Golf Digest; and operates eight network-affiliated television stations and two New York City radio stations. It also operates news, photo and graphic services as well as news and feature syndicates, and conducts several ventures in electronic publishing and new media. The Company holds interests in one newsprint mill, one supercalendered paper mill and the International Herald Tribune, S.A.S.

The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NYT.