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May 26, 2009

Newspaper union leaders accept concessions

By The Mainebiz News Staff

The Portland Newspaper Guild's executive board has voted unanimously to accept concessions to help ease the sale of Blethen Maine Newspapers to an investment group.

The union said Friday that MaineToday Media Inc., a collaboration between Bangor-native Richard Connor and HM Capital, a private equity firm in Dallas, has lined up the financing to buy the Blethen papers from The Seattle Times Co. Connor has said concessions from the union are a requirement of the sale. The concessions, which union members will vote on this Friday, include a 10% pay cut, a suspension of retirement and 401(k) contributions by the company and a two-year wage freeze, according to the Portland Press Herald. The Portland Newspaper Guild represents about 300 workers at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram and roughly 50 at the Morning Sentinel in Waterville.

In exchange for the union's concessions, employees will be part of an employee stock ownership plan that will give them a 15% stake in the new company, according to the paper. Connor, editor and publisher of the Times Leader newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., wants to close the sale by the end of May, the paper said.

 

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