Six of the paper’s seven unions agreed to cuts. The largest didn’t. The Globe, which looked off a cliff last night at the bottom and didn’t like the view, has apparently succeeded in getting enough concessions to stay afloat for the moment. The paper had set a May 1st deadline to get their unions to agree to $20 million in cuts. The only union that didn’t agree was the largest, the Boston Newspaper Guild. At issue are salary cuts and benefits such as lifetime job guarantees, which seem not so smart now that the paper’s bleeding money. source
Unions and management are butting heads. At stake? The paper itself. The management of The Boston Globe, owned by The New York Times Company, is prepared to file a shutdown notice if it cannot convince its unions to cut costs significantly. The iconic newspaper and the union have for the moment stopped talking, but could start up again tonight. The two sides were fighting against a deadline which conveniently passed at midnight. See that? That’s sweat going down furrowed brows. source
It wasn’t only the muscle cars, the GTO or the ’67 Firebird or the beastly Trans-Am, that made Pontiac something special.
“The Swamp” blogger Mark Silva • Reminiscing about the death of the Pontiac brand, which was announced today along with all those job cuts by GM. The Pontiac brand slowly but surely evolved away from those muscle cars that defined it early on, but they still define the brand to many. • source
We start from the simple premise that we should reduce the tax burden on working people, while helping Americans go to college, own a home, raise a family, start a business and save for retirement.
President Barack Obama • Defending his tax strategy and promising more cuts by the end of the year. All those conservatives teabagging with Dick Armey? (Sorry, we couldn’t resist the potty joke.) Not on the list, apparently, which is why they’re ticked off. We blame the red coats. • source