Globe Reporter Rails Against Agreement With Times Co.

Last time we checked in, The Boston Globe‘s largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, had reached a tentative agreement with the paper’s owner, the New York Times Co., and union members were preparing to vote on the deal July 20.

But today, alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix published a letter from Globe reporter Brian Mooney urging his fellow guild members to vote “no” later this month.

Mooney argues that under the new agreement, which is “at best, marginally better than the one we voted down on June 8,” the guild members stand to lose “more than the barbaric 23 percent wage cut the NY Times Co. has imposed as punishment for standing up, exercising our rights, and rejecting their outlandish demands.”

“The paper is for sale, and it is highly unlikely the Times can unload us without a new contract and if there is the threat of an adverse finding by the National Labor Relations Board in the future,” Mooney went on. “The company has never bargained in good faith, and a ‘no’ vote would give us real leverage to bring them back to the table to work out a slightly better deal we can all live with.”

Will his letter sway guild members? Or is the end of this newspaper labor struggle only a few weeks away?

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