Newspaper Guild Ratifies Contract with The Seattle Times.Business Editors SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2001 Members of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild voted 359 to 116 to ratify a new six-year contract with The Seattle Times, ending a 49-day strike against the newspaper by the Guild. Results of the two-day voting process were announced today at 5:30 p.m. PST PST Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, see there . The vote did not include more than 200 Guild members who have been working during the strike. The Communications Workers of America Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States (the union also has locals in Canada), representing over 700,000 workers in both the private and public sectors. (CWA CWA Clean Water Act (33 USC) CWA Communications Workers of America CWA Concerned Women for America CWA CEN Workshop Agreement (European pre-normative document) CWA County Warning Area CWA Clean Water Action ) which represents about 80 composing room com·pos·ing room n. A room where typesetting is done. employees at The Seattle Times also voted 45-17 to ratify their contract. "We are pleased our employees have ratified the contracts and we can begin the process of reuniting our workforce," said Mason Sizemore, president of The Seattle Times. "We are ready to put our differences behind us and work together. Our focus will be to continue to grow The Seattle Times and serve our community with a great newspaper." Contract negotiations with the Guild began in July of last year. The Guild, which represents approximately 812 news, advertising, circulation and marketing employees at The Seattle Times, went on strike on November 21. CWA employees at The Seattle Times and Guild employees at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (P-I) also went on strike. Under a joint operating agreement Any contract, agreement, Joint Venture, or other arrangement entered into by two or more businesses in which the operations and the physical facilities of a failing business are merged, although each business retains its status as a separate entity in terms of profits and , The Seattle Times manages most business functions for both newspapers. The P-I's newsroom is separate and competitive. Guild members at the P-I recently voted to approve a contract which is virtually the same as the contract approved today by Seattle Times employees. Final agreement on contract terms was reached on January 4 in the offices of U.S. Senator Patty Murray in Washington, D. C. Senator Murray had invited representatives from The Seattle Times, the Guild and its parent union, the CWA, to Washington, D.C. to try to reach settlement. Murray and the head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is an independent agency of the U.S. government that seeks to prevent or settle disputes between labor unions and management that affect interstate commerce. , C. Richard Barnes, were instrumental in helping both sides reach agreement. The Seattle Times will call striking employees back to work beginning later this week. The Seattle Times Company is a 104-year-old locally owned family business. Founded in 1896 by Alden J. Blethen, The Seattle Times is a fourth and fifth generation family business. The family's flagship newspaper, The Seattle Times, is the largest daily newspaper in Washington state (220,000 circulation) and the largest Sunday newspaper in the Northwest (502,000). Other Blethen-owned newspapers in Washington
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