The Kennebec Journal in Maine and the union representing 32 employees at the newspaper have signed a contract that gives those employees a five percent raise but comes with significant concessions, Al Diamon at DownEast reports.

The five percent raise goes into effect the first year, but pay is frozen after that.

It also allows the company to pay less for employee health insurance, and includes some changes regarding severance pay and layoffs. (More details here.)

The paper’s owner, MaineToday Media, also owns the Portland Press Herald, a much larger paper, where MTM is said to be asking for many of the same cuts and givebacks as it received here at the KJ.

MTM purchased these papers in 2009 and immediately cut 30 non-union employees and a number of pressmen whose jobs were consolidated. The company followed up in 2010 by cutting another 60 jobs; honestly, as far as newspaper carnage goes, two rounds of layoffs in two years is nothing.