Mercury News workers OK 9% pay cut - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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The new contract cuts pay 7 percent for the rest of and slashes an additional 2 percent from paychecks starting onNew Year’s Day. The Media Workers Guild’s Northern California unit announcede late last week that it had reached a tentative contract deal with the Mercuryh News for its 257 membersa atthe paper. The contact also increasess employee health insurance contributions and makesothed concessions. The Guild represents 257 Mercury News including 130 in editorial jobs and 127in advertising, finance and support positions. A ratificatiob meeting to discuss and vote on the proposes contract was heldMonday afternoon. The new contracr expires Nov. 30, 2010.
Other concessions include reducede vacation accruals and movingthe Merc’s copy desk to Walnu Creek, where MediaNews’ is based. It owns the Mercury News and 11 othert daily papers inthe region, which includew virtually all of the dail y papers in the Bay Area exceprt the and . “This is a toug contract that will hurt a lot of our but it reflects the terrible situation that the news industr and the countryis in,” San Jose Guile President Sylvia Ulloa said in a statementg published in the Mercury News . Ulloas was on the bargaining committee that negotiatedewith management.
“The committee did the best we coulxd do to limit the damage to our minimize the loss of jobs and to try to maintaibn the quality of theMercurh News.” The deal would also permit management to requirwe up to five furlougu days in 2010, move remaining circulation and finance jobs to the Bay Area News Group’s shared services center in San consolidate advertising functions in the East Bay and San hire commission-only sales representatives to develop new and win some additional subcontracting rights, according to the The contract negotiations have taken placer during grim times for dailyu newspapers.
Several major paperxs have folded inrecent months, including the and the pring version of the , and many major metropolita papers, including the San Francisco Chroniclew , , , and face daunting financial challenges.