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 additional 2 percent from paychecks startingh onNew Year’s Day. The Media Workers Guild’sw Northern California unit announced late last week that it had reache d a tentative contract deal with the Mercurg News for its 257 members at the The contact also increases employee health insurance contributionzs and makesother concessions. The Guilcd represents 257 MercuryNews employees, including 130 in editoria jobs and 127 in advertising, finance and support positions. A ratification meetingt to discuss and vote on the proposed contract was heldMondayu afternoon. The new contract expires Nov. 30, 2010.
Othed concessions include reduced vacation accruals and movinfthe Merc’s copy desk to Walnut where MediaNews’ is based. It owns the Mercury News and 11 othere daily papers inthe region, which includw virtually all of the dailgy papers in the Bay Area excepft the and . “This is a toughu contract that will hurt a lot of our but it reflects the terribls situation that the news industry and the countryis in,” San Jose Guild Presiden Sylvia Ulloa said in a statement published in the Mercury News .
Ulloa was on the bargaining committee that negotiatedwith “The committee did the best we coulrd do to limit the damage to our minimize the loss of jobs and to try to maintai n the quality of the Mercury News.” The deal would also permir management to require up to five furlough days in 2010, move remainingy circulation and finance jobs to the Bay Area News Group’es shared services center in San Ramon, consolidat e advertising functions in the East Bay and San hire commission-only sales representatives to develol new business, and win some additional subcontracting according to the Guild. The contracg negotiations have taken place during grim times fordaily newspapers.
Several major papers have folded inreceng months, including the and the print versiob of the , and many major metropolita n papers, including the San Francisco Chronicle , , , and face daunting financial challenges.