Globe Union Feels ‘Betrayed’ As Times Bosses Paid Millions

By Christine McConville - Boston Herald Reporter

Boston Globe union members are telling their bosses at the New York Times [NYT] Co. that they want their money back.

The furious scribes learned last week that the architects of last year’s brutal $20 million in cost cuts were richly rewarded for their efforts.
And now, as the Boston Newspaper Guild prepares to negotiate a new contract, its members say they want the money they gave up last year.

“We are insulted, but we also feel betrayed that you would reap such profits at a time when so many of your employees have lost so much,” the Boston Newspaper Guild says in a letter addressed to New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Chief Executive Janet Robinson.

The scathing missive is circulating 11 months after Times executives came to Boston and delivered a staggering ultimatum: The paper’s unions had to trim $20 million from their payrolls or the Times Co. would close the Globe.

After a few stormy months, the unions conceded, and a grateful Sulzberger came from Manhattan to thank them.

Two weeks ago, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed that in 2009, Robinson’s compensation rose 32 percent, to $6.2 million, while Sulzberger’s pay more than doubled to $5.9 million.

“We want the New York Times leadership to know that we’re angry and disgusted by their greed and hypocrisy,” the union’s letter states. “The recent SEC filings make it look like almost all of our sacrifices went to pay the two of you.”