Maxwell, Unions Deciding Fate of N.Y. Daily News : Media: Four of the newspaper’s nine unions reach an agreement with the press baron as one deadline passes.

Talks to save the legendary New York Daily News continued through this morning, with British press baron Robert Maxwell saying he reached agreement with four of the paper’s nine unions.

But the three largest and most contentious unions had not yet agreed to Maxwell’s plan to cut more than a third of the work force--cuts he said were necessary before he would consent to buy the 71-year-old tabloid. Union representatives predicted at about 1:30 a.m. EST that although talks were continuing, there would be nothing further announced until later today.

Maxwell, who has a reputation as a tough and tireless negotiator, had set a midnight deadline to reach a settlement. But moments before the deadline, he agreed to stop the clock and continue negotiating. The British publisher is considered the paper’s last hope for survival. If an accord cannot be struck with a buyer, the paper’s owner, Chicago-based Tribune Co., has said it would shut down the strike-crippled tabloid this Friday.

The four unions reaching agreement represent mailers, machinists, paper handlers and electricians. Together they account for fewer than 300 of the paper’s 2,300 employees.

As the midnight deadline passed, agreements also were close with two other unions, representing stereotypers and photo engravers, said George McDonald, president of the Allied Printing Trades Council, an umbrella group for the nine unions. Those two unions represent 54 more workers.

But that still left the three largest unions--the Newspaper Guild, drivers and pressmen--without an agreement.

At 1 a.m., a representative of the drivers union said the group was preparing a possible counteroffer to a Maxwell proposal to eliminate 300 of its more than 700 jobs.

In a midnight address to reporters, Maxwell had said, “we are making good progress . . . and at the request of George (McDonald, president of the Allied Printing Trades Council,), I have readily agreed to stop the clock” in order that the two sides may continue negotiating.

Sources close to the negotiations told The Times that the drivers’ and pressmen’s unions in particular still had deep differences with Maxwell. The fate of the News “will rise or fall on the pressmen and drivers,” one of the sources said.

One source said Maxwell was so far from an agreement with those two unions--the most crucial all along--that it seemed doubtful a deal could be consummated by the deadline or any time soon after. Tribune Co. has blamed the drivers for preventing the paper from being delivered and threatening newsstand dealers if they carried the paper.

Talks with the drivers Monday were bogged down principally over work rules, while negotiations with the pressmen were snagged chiefly over the number of their jobs to be eliminated, the sources said.