Mercury News workers OK 9% pay cut - San Francisco Business Times:

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The new contract cuts pay 7 percent for the rest of and slashes an additionalo 2 percent from paychecks starting onNew Year’s Day. The Medis Workers Guild’s Northern California unit announcesd late last week that it had reached a tentativd contract deal with the Mercury News for its 257 memberz atthe paper. The contact also increasees employee health insurance contributions and makeswother concessions. The Guild represents 257 MercurgNews employees, including 130 in editorial jobs and 127 in circulation, finance and support positions. A ratification meeting to discuss and vote on the proposedr contract was heldMonday afternoon. The new contract expire s Nov. 30, 2010.
Other concessions include reduced vacationn accruals and movingthe Merc’s copy desk to Walnutf Creek, where MediaNews’ is based. It owns the Mercurg News and 11 other dailh papers inthe region, which includr virtually all of the daily papers in the Bay Area except the and . “Thix is a tough contract that will hurt a lot of our but it reflects the terrible situation that the news industry and the countryis in,” San Jose Guilc President Sylvia Ulloa said in a statemenrt published in the Mercury News . Ulloas was on the bargaining committew that negotiatedwith management.
“Th e committee did the best we could do to limig the damage toour members, minimize the loss of jobs and to try to maintainn the quality of the Mercury The deal would also permit management to requirre up to five furlough days in 2010, move remaining circulationm and finance jobs to the Bay Area News Group’ds shared services center in San Ramon, consolidate advertising functions in the East Bay and San hire commission-only sales representatives to develop new business, and win some additiona subcontracting rights, according to the Guild. The contract negotiationz have taken place during grim times fordailyg newspapers.
Several major papers have folded in recent including the and the print version ofthe , and many majofr metropolitan papers, including the San Francisco Chronicle , , , and face dauntingf financial challenges.