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Supplemental Agreement

August 31, 2006 Globe’s Best Offer

SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT
Between
GLOBE NEWSPAPER COMPANY, INC.
And
BOSTON NEWSPAPER GUILD LOCAL 31245, TNG-CWA

Globe Newspaper Company, Inc. (the “Globe”) and Boston Newspaper Guild Local 31245, TNG-CWA (the “BNG”) enter into this Supplemental Agreement which is to become a part of the collective bargaining agreement between the parties, effective January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2009.

If any conflict or dispute arises between any of the terms and conditions of this Supplemental Agreement and any of the terms and conditions of the parties’ current collective bargaining agreement, the terms and conditions of this Supplemental Agreement shall prevail.

This Supplemental Agreement encompasses certain limited changes negotiated between the parties. All changes will be incorporated into the new collective bargaining agreement.

NEGOTIATED CHANGES

I. Lay Off/Subcontracting-Technological Change


1. Article III, Section 1“Layoffs” will be changed to include the following final sentence in subsection A: “If the employer offers a buyout, including but not limited to that provided for in Article VIII, Section 4, such buyout offer shall constitute lay-off notice to employees in the specified classifications as provided herein. Employees who are subject to lay off without individual notice as provided in Section A above shall receive no less than one week’s actual notice of their lay off and up to three (3) weeks pay in lieu of notice for a combined total of four weeks’ pay or actual notice.”

2. Article III, Section 1, “Layoff” A new section F will be added to provide, “Employees who receive severance payment pursuant to this Article shall be required to sign a standard release of all claims against the Globe and the Union.

3. Article VIII, Section 4, “Subcontracting/Technological Change”, subsection 1(b) will be changed to provide as follows: “The Globe shall notify the Union in writing at least two months in advance of the operative date of subcontracting or implementation of technological/process change. The notice shall include:


  1. the type and purpose thereof;
  2. a list of job classifications to be affected within the departments to be affected together with (i) the names, employment dates and length of service of all bargaining unit employees in such classifications and (ii) the number of bargaining unit positions to be reduced in each such classification. This notification shall satisfy the notice requirement in Article III, Section 1(A), including that required to employees.”

4.Article VIII, Section 4, subsection 2 shall be changed to provide as follows: “Within four weeks after notifying the Union pursuant to sub section (1), the Globe shall offer to all bargaining unit employees on the Subsection 1(b) list (including those protected from lay off under the parties’ “job guarantee”) a voluntary buyout, which shall be limited to the number of positions to be reduced in each classification. Bargaining unit employees who accept the voluntary buyout offer will be required to sign a standard release of all claims against the Globe and the Union in order to receive the benefits listed below.”

5. Article VIII, Section 4 (2) (a) shall be changed to provide: “The benefits offered to full time employees shall be as follows:

…….(iii) continuation of health insurance through the parties’ Taft Hartley Fund (if currently in the Fund), with the Globe paying the full cost of the premium based on the following eligibility:

  1. full time employees with less than 5 years service = 3 month coverage;
  2. full time employees with at least 5 but less than 10 years of service = 5 months coverage; and
  3. full time employees with 10 or more years of service = 8 months coverage

6. Article VIII, Section 4(2)(b) shall be changed to provide, “The benefits offered to part time employees shall be as follows:

  1. Part time employees with 10 or more years of service of at least 600 hours will be eligible for 6 months base pay plus continuation of health insurance coverage (if currently in the Plan) for 6 months, with the Globe paying to the full cost of the premium to the Fund.
  2. Part time employees with at least 5 but less than 10 years of service of at least 600 hours will be eligible for 3 months base pay plus continuation of health insurance coverage (if currently on the Plan) for 2 months as in the above paragraph.
  3. Part time employees with less than 5 years of service of 600 hours will be eligible to receive 4 weeks actual notice (or one week of base pay for each week in lieu of actual notice) plus 1 week of base pay for each year of service.

7. Article VIII, Section 4(c) shall be changed to provide:, “For purposes of this section, “base pay” will be based on the average number of hours worked weekly plus any commission/incentives averaged over the 24 months preceding the buyout offer.”

II.Journalism and Corporate Business Ethics Policies.
See attached side letter


QUID PRO QUO

1. Article VIA, Section 4, “Expense Reimbursements” will be modified to provide as follows “Effective upon ratification and signing, the Employer shall reimburse employees for automobile use on work assignments at the current IRS approved rate per mile with a minimum of twenty (20) cents per mile up to maximum of fifty cents ($.50) per mile when such use is authorized by the Employer. In recognition of the additional depreciation…. All employees who are required by the Employer to have an automobile for their business use will be paid a depreciation allowance of six (6) cents per mile…..Effective January 1, 2008 this payment will be increased to seven (7) cents per mile and effective January 1, 2009 this payment will increase to eight (8) cents per mile.” [Remainder of paragraph remains unchanged].

2. Article VIA, Section 15, “Health Care Reimbursement Account Plan” will be modified to provide that full time employees will be eligible to participate in the plan up to a maximum level of $5000 per year. [Remainder of paragraph remains unchanged].

3.. In recognition of the additional flexibility that has been agreed to by the Guild as described in the parties’ August 3, 2006 boston.com integration agreement, the Globe will make the following quid pro quo payments into the parties’ Taft Hartley Health Fund:


  • Effective May 1, 2007, a lump sum payment of $125,000;
  • Effective January 1, 2008 a lump sum payment of $75,000;
  • Effective May 1, 2008 a lump sum payment of $75,000;
  • Effective January 1, 2009 a lump sum payment of $75,000;
  • Effective May 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009 equal monthly payments of $16,666.67 for a total payment of $133,333.32 for the balance of 2009 ; and
  • Effective January 1, 2010 and each year thereafter an annualized payment of $200,000 (payable in equal monthly installment of $16,666.67).

This Supplemental Agreement shall be subject to ratification by the membership of the Union. It has been signed and executed by the parties below on this ______ day of August, 2006.

GLOBE NEWSPAPER COMPANY, INC. BOSTON NEWSPAPER GUILD
LOCAL 31245, TNG-CWA
[signature lines] [signature lines]

September 14, 2006