By Gal Tziperman Lotan, News Staff

The Boston Newspaper Guild, the Boston Globe’s largest union, proposed cutting its co-op and summer intern positions as part of a $10 million concessions offer rejected Sunday night by the New York Times Co., which owns the Globe, according to an article posted on Boston.com outlining the offer.
Like many newspapers across the country, the Globe is in the midst of financial crisis and is projected to lose $85 million this year. Last month, the New York Times Co. threatened to shutter the paper unless unions came up with $20 million in concessions. That deadline was extended Sunday night as the Guild continued negotiations last night, when it remained unclear if slashing co-op positions will be a part of the final deal with the Globe’s management.
Union officials did not return phone messages from The News seeking comment.
According to the Boston.com article, cutting co-op and summer internship positions would save the Globe $452,563 a year. It would also mark the end of a longstanding co-op partnership between the paper and schools like Northeastern, whose students have been co-oping there since at least the 1970s, said Director of the School of Journalism Stephen Burgard.
Burgard said he is not considering major changes to the School of Journalism’s co-op program, but said he hopes the Globe will continue hiring co-ops.
‘I’m hopeful that the Globe’s problems will be resolved in a favorable way,’ he said. ‘I’m not assuming [cutting co-op positions] is a done deal, but it’s something we’re watching.’
Maria Chutchian, a junior print and multimedia journalism major at Emerson College who was hired to start co-oping on the Globe’s metro desk in July, said although a Globe staff member told her that people already hired as co-ops and summer interns will keep their positions, the Guild’s proposal and the Globe’s financial state dampened her outlook on the field of journalism.
‘I’m praying that everything works out and they make a compromise that benefits everyone,’ she said. ‘It would be a shame to see co-op go.’
Globe High School Sports Editor Bob Holmes, who employs three co-ops, said nearly all high school sports writers are co-ops or part-time, college-aged employees.
‘The Sports Department relies on its co-ops more than any other department in the Globe, and we would all be very disappointed if they went away,’ he said. ‘It would make things very difficult.’
Aside from covering high school sports in the greater Boston area, co-ops also answer calls from about 150 coaches reporting game scores many evenings, Holmes said.
Because they are immersed in the sports department for six months, co-ops are often better than the part-timers, he said.
‘The downside of a [part-time] college student is that by the time you figure out how to do something, you leave,’ Holmes said. ‘The benefit of a co-op is that you start to get familiar with the way things are done, you get familiar with the coaches and the things you’re covering.’
The Globe also employs co-ops in the Living/Arts, Business, Editorial and Editorial Design departments, among others.
Once the Boston Newspaper Guild comes to an agreement with the paper’s management, union members have 30 days to review and vote on any contract changes, including pay cuts, elimination of controversial lifetime job guarantees and elimination of positions, according to media reports.