Time Inc., Newspaper Guild at ‘impasse’ on talks

Newspaper Guild negotiators on Friday rejected the latest offer from Time Inc., prompting the nation’s No. 1 maga✨zine publisher to declare an impasse in its labor negotiations.

The biggest stumbling block appears 🐎to be Time Inc.’s desire to have the right to export some of the journa📖lism jobs offshore.

The union covers just over 200 employees, mostly on the print side of the company’s core titles — Time, People, Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated. Time Inc.’s latest offer would allow as many as 160 of those jobs to be sent overseas, according to the uꦗnion.

Most of Time Inc.’s lifes✨tyle titles, in♕cluding InStyle, Real Simple, Southern Living and Sunset, are not covered by the union.

The contract expired in April, but both sides — perhaps sensing tough ne🦂gotiations — started talks about 18 months ago. They agreed to extend the last contract through June 30, so that the negotiations were not a distraction ahead of Time🐠 Inc.’s spinoff from parent Time Warner in early June.

But 🤡the extension appears to be about the last thing the two sides agreed on. Health care coverage for retirees is also an issue, the union said.

“Over the past several months, the publisher has repeatedly enhanced its wage offer and dropped proposals of significant importance, all in an effort to move towards a deal,” Time Inc.♑ lawyer Jonathan Sulds wrote in a letter to Anthony Napoli, the Time Inc. union rep.

He said the offer union negotiators rejected was the company’s 💃“last, best and final offer.”

Whil🧸e most journalists inside the company are not union members, many are worried about CEO Joe Ripp’s decision to end the so-called separation of church and state and have editors for the first tim🐓e reporting directly to executives on the business side.

Meanwhile, the union is stepping up its attacks, blasting Time Inc. for accepting $10 million in tax breaks for job creation at its new downtown hea🦂dquarters while seeking to off-shore jobs.

“Time Inc.’s proposal to hollow out its own company is simply not acceptable,” said Guild president Bill O’Meara.𝕴 “Many of Time Inc.’s proposals are not only outrageous. We believe they are illegal.”