Don Seiffert | Boston Business Journal | December 30, 2019
New England’s largest newspaper is entering the new year amid fierce battles with two of its labor unions, while the area’s largest radio newsroom is mired in a months-long struggle of its own to forge its first-ever union contract.
At the Boston Globe, this week marks one full year without a contract for the Boston Newspaper Guild, the union that represents 300 journalists and business employees. It’s the longest duration the union has gone without a contract in recent memory.
Meanwhile, at the Globe’s Taunton printing facility, negotiations are also underway with Teamsters Local 1, the Boston Mailers Union, over efforts to lay off 77 full-time and 44 part-time workers there. News of the layoffs first emerged in September, in connection with a decision to outsource mailroom work associated with Globe Direct, the direct-mail advertising service that reportedly makes tens of millions of dollars in revenue annually.
At WBUR, negotiations have been taking place since last May over a contract to cover about 120 newsroom employees. The nonprofit, NPR-affiliated radio station and website first voted last January to form a union affiliated with SAG-AFTRA, but it was several months before contract talks began with WBUR management and Boston University, which owns its radio license.
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