Job guarantees cause impasse in Globe, union talks

Negotiations between the Boston Globe and its largest union reached an impasse Monday, largely over lifetime job guarantees that the 137-year-old newspaper says it has to end if it will survive.

The newspaper’s owner, New York Times Co., struck agreements with six of seven unions at the Globe in an effort to cut $20 million in annual costs. But talks stalled with the largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents about 700 editorial, advertising and business employees.

Globe management backed off -- at least temporarily -- on a threat to file a notice required by federal law to begin the process of shutting down the newspaper. Both sides said they would resume talks in coming days but did not specify when.

The guild said it had offered more than the $10 million in concessions demanded from it by Times Co., but that did not include changes to the job guarantees.

At least one of the smaller unions agreed to changes in the guarantees for its members, but the guild’s president, Daniel Totten, has called ending that job protection a “nonstarter.”