Boston Newspaper Guild approves new contract with Boston Globe

After nearly three years of negotiations, employees at Boston Globe Media Partners on Friday approved a new three-year contract that provides for annual raises and protects overtime pay and arbitration rights, according to the company and the Boston Newspaper Guild.

Guild members will receive an immediate 3 percent raise and $1,000 bonus for signing the contract, followed by 2 percent raises in the second and third years, according to a statement from the union, which represents more than 300 members of the newsroom, advertising and production staff for The Boston Globe, Boston.com, and STAT News.

“This agreement is a big win for journalists, Guild members, and New England readers,” Scott Steeves, president of the union, said in the statement. “We rejected Globe management’s short-sighted proposals and stuck together to safeguard journalistic integrity and workplace protections.”

A Globe spokesperson said the contract “provides strong protections and economic benefits for Guild members and we will immediately start working together on its implementation.”

“The Globe remains committed to journalistic excellence and a relentless focus on providing the best possible service to our region,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We will continue to invest and innovate in order to ensure that the local, independent journalism that our community has relied on for nearly 150 years will thrive and be sustainable for many years to come.”

The contract, approved after a week-long vote, preserves workers’ rights not to be disciplined or fired without just cause, the union said, and provides protections for employees if the company is sold.

It also limits the company’s ability to subcontract work to outside entities, an agreement the union called “a crucial compromise that protects the integrity of our newsroom” in an e-mail to members following the vote.

Globe employees have worked without a contract since December 2018, the union said.

Union negotiators balked at early proposals from management, saying they feared they would remove basic protections for workers, and Globe staff members took to the streets, rallying outside the newspaper’s downtown headquarters and marching around Fenway Park to protest the slow pace of negotiations. In September, US Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren withdrew from a virtual conference hosted by the Globe to express solidarity with the union.

Kevin Slane, the union’s secretary, said the long negotiation process had been difficult but readers had remained supportive. “We’re incredibly grateful to our readers for supporting us through these negotiations,” he said.