Media Nation has obtained the full text of Boston Globe staff member Lylah Alphonse’s open e-mail to Brian Mooney. Alphonse favors approval of the Boston Newspaper Guild’s latest deal with the New York Times Co.; Mooney is opposed. Let’s get right to it:
To: Brian Mooney
[email addresses removed]07/08/2009 11:44 AM
Of course it’s only marginally better than the one voted down June 8. What on earth were you expecting?
“Rejecting their outlandish demands” sounds great. What are you proposing instead, in order to achieve the $10 Million in savings? In all of the “vote no” emails I’ve received since June 8, not a single one has offered up a viable solution the $10 Million problem.
The NLRB route is a crapshoot, at best. In Fiscal Year 2008, just 36 percent of unfair labor practice cases (8,100 out of 22,501) filed in the Regional Offices were determined to have merit and warranted the issuance of an unfair labor practice complaint. In Fiscal Year 2008, the NLRB resolved 68 percent of those “meritorious” cases “by withdrawal, dismissal, or closing upon compliance” within 120 days of filing. A total of 76 percent of the “meritorious” cases were resolved within a year of filing. Which means that a quarter of the cases that the NLRB deemed worth pursuing took more than a year to close.
(Source: http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/shared_files/reports/PAR2008/PAR2008.htm)
A no vote will not postpone layoffs — a yes vote locks NYT in to the new contract through the end of 2010, a no vote allows them to do whatever they plan to do sooner than that. And of course layoffs are coming. We’re printing fewer papers. Ad sales are plummeting — they dropped nearly 30% in the first quarter of 2009 and are still dropping (source: http://chiefmarketer.com/advertising/print/0610-newspaper-ad-sales-plummet/). We’re beefing up Boston.com and Globe reader; more readers get their news online. All of that requires less staff, maybe in the newsroom, definitely in advertising, sales, classified, and printing- and distribution-related departments.
A quick NLRB resolution would take, at best, 3 to 4 months. A quick sale would take 4 to 6 months, judging by previous sales here and elsewhere. It would be easy for the union or for the Globe to drag things out, but the longer this drags out, the easier it is for NYT to turn to other options — like bankruptcy.
Bottom line: If you think you can get a better job with another company, now is a great time to go for it. But if you plan to stay at the Globe — or don’t think you can land a better job elsewhere — you’re going to have to deal with what NYT is dishing out: a 23% paycut or a package of cuts that seems to get worse with every negotiation.
Your choice.
Lylah M. Alphonse
The Boston Globe
135 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125
