The Newspaper Guild, the union that represents New York Times newsroom employees, has been struck with a stiff fee for using meeting rooms in the NYT's own headquarters! A corporate snub? The tactics are getting dirty. Fortunately, this gives you an opportunity to read this pleasing two-sentence combo: "The easy-to-find hall is on the second floor on the 40th Streetside of the terminal, next to Drago's Shoe Repair. (Use the Port Authority entrance near the Ralph Kramden statue.)" Full email to members about the scandalous dirty dealing, below!

In a 427-to-36 vote yesterday afternoon, the union that covers the New York Times newsroom ratified the 5% pay cut that management asked for in March to mirror the pay cut they put in place for all non-union employees.

While the New York Times Co. is threatening to shut down the Boston Globe if its unions don't agree to steep cuts in its labor contracts, employees covered by the Newspaper Guild at the NYT are voting today on whether to accept a 5% pay cut for the remainder of the year in exchange for 10 days of paid vacation (which together adds up to a 10-day furlough).

The New York Times would like to cut its employees pay by 5%, but before that goes into effect for reporters and other members of the Newspaper Guild, they need the union's okay. A memo that just went out after a council meeting says the Guild is loath to take the pay cut because a) they're pretty sure the 60-80 layoffs the NYT is threatening will happen with or without the pay cut and b) it would make more sense to save money by firing some of the do-nothing managers.

"It's been kind of a depressing day," said Bill O'Meara, president of the Newspaper Guild of New York, when we asked him how Times staffers were taking the news today of layoffs in the newsroom. "It went all through the building very quickly, people were not happy," he said.