The Boston Newspaper Guild last night overwhelmingly voted to accept a new contract that includes US$10 million worth of wage and benefit reductions that will help keep the Boston Globe alive and facilitate its sale, Boston.com reported Tuesday.

The newspaper's largest union voted 366 to 179 to ratify the contract, Robert Powers, a spokesman for the Boston Globe, told Bloomberg. The new arrangement includes a 5.9 percent salary cut, more unpaid days off and no health coverage for retirees older than 65.

The decision to approve the proposal end months of negotiations and frees union represented staff from a 23 percent pay cut imposed by owner the New York Times Co. after the last concession offer was rejected. The new contractual arrangement includes the repayment of some of the lost wages with the health fund concessions.

Guild president Daniel Totten said, "It has been a long and difficult period for everyone, and we hope we can now work with prospective buyers to help The Boston Globe and Boston.com to carry on with its vital mission to promote good journalism and protect free speech.''

Analysts believe the agreement will help facilitate the sale of the Globe by the Times Co.

"A new contract puts all the details in place and there are no loose ends that a buyer would have to worry about down the road," said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts said. "A buyer knows they're taking on a union that can compromise."

While the Times Co. has not commented on any potential sale of the Globe, it has sold or is looking to sell a number of its assets. Last week it sold the WQXR radio station and is has been pursuing a buyer for its stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The Times Co. had threatened to sell the Globe if it could not find $20 million worth of saving from its union employees.

"The ratification strengthens the stability of The Boston Globe and Boston.com,'' Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley wrote in a note to employees. "Since we now have settled contracts with all our major unions, let me take this opportunity to thank every Globe employee, union and nonunion, for the sacrifices you have made to meet the unprecedented challenges we faced at the beginning of the year.''

"We hope that we can now work with prospective buyers to help the Boston Globe and Boston.com carry on with its vital mission to promote good journalism and protect free speech," the union said in a statement on Tuesday.