Herald staff
About 50 members of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild have reached an agreement with The Herald on a four-year contract.
The contract was ratified Wednesday night by the workers, who work in advertising, production, distribution and technical services jobs. The union did not disclose the vote total, but guild spokeswoman Liz Brown said it was approved by a wide margin.
The contract gives workers annual raises of between 2.5 and 4.4 percent, depending on job category, which, given the current economic climate, is "fair," Brown said.
The union also won a wage differential for some night-shift workers who didn’t receive one before, and got The Herald to agree to contract buyouts, rather than layoffs, if new technology eliminates the jobs of workers during the life of the contract.
Publisher Allen Funk said the agreement allows nonunion artists to do more work during the production of advertisements. In exchange, the paper will spend more money on training for union-represented composing room workers.
The guild had conducted informational picketing outside The Herald last month. The previous contract expired Oct. 31, but the two sides agreed to extend it, month-by-month, until the end of February.
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