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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Boston Globe faces shutdown

Denise Lavoie Associated Press

BOSTON – The management of the Boston Globe threatened late Sunday to begin the process of shutting down the newspaper in a dispute with its unions over $20 million in cuts.

The Globe’s owner, the New York Times Co., said it had given the Globe’s biggest union a copy of a notice it was prepared to file today if it was unable to agree on the concessions by midnight Sunday, a deadline that passed without word from the union or the Times Co. The 60-day shutdown notice is required under federal law.

The newspaper’s largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, called the move a “bullying” tactic by the Times Co., which last month threatened to close the Globe unless its unions agreed to $20 million in cuts, including half from the Newspaper Guild.

The Guild said late Sunday it had proposed more than the $10 million in cuts sought by the Times Co. to keep the newspaper running. In a statement released two hours before the midnight deadline Sunday, the Guild said its proposal called for “tremendous sacrifices, across virtually all categories of compensation and benefits.”

The Guild did not release specifics on what kinds of wage or benefit cuts it had proposed to the Times Co. The union said further details would be made public once all members have had a chance to review them. It was unclear whether the Globe’s other unions had made proposals for the remaining $10 million in cuts.

The Times Co. would not comment on the Guild’s proposal.