SAN JUAN – Union employees at Puerto Rico’s El Nuevo Dia newspaper returned to working a full eight-hour day after reaching an accord with management to end two weeks of reduced working hours due to the recession.

Union leader Yaphet Torres said in a statement that the accord was reached Sunday in an assembly where management was also convinced to pay retroactively the hour eliminated from the workday during the last two weeks.

One of the assembly’s most important achievements, according to the union, was that management agreed not to outsource jobs currently held by union members, as occurred last week when the company hired a private company when its circulation department was closed.

Regarding the circulation department, the unions also got management to provide $800 in severance pay for each year worked to employees who were in the company for 10 years, and $1,400 per year worked to those who were in the firm for more than 10 years.

“We gave our all to make sure those employees remained, but unfortunately management refused to maintain that operation,” Torres said.

The union leader said that if it hadn’t been for the militancy and firmness of union employees at this time, the workers in the circulation department would only have received payment of the monthly stipend guaranteed by law.

In exchange for returning to the full 40-hour week, the El Nuevo Dia employees, affiliated to Local 6135 of the United Steelworkers, agreed that the company could suspend its contribution to the pension plan for a year.

Nonetheless, if at the end of six months the company takes in net revenues of more than $176 million, it will again have to make its contributions.

Meanwhile the payment of 100 percent of bonuses and pay raises determined in the collective bargaining agreement remains subject to the company obtaining net revenues of at least $180 million.

The accords were considered a victory for the newspaper’s workers, who since last year have engaged in a determined fight with management to preserve jobs and benefits.

Last month El Nuevo Dia fired seven employees, some with more than 20 years of service, in the areas of administration, sales and production.

Print media in Puerto Rico have seen some difficult times since August 2008, when The San Juan Star, founded in 1959 and the only English-language daily on the Caribbean island, went under. Other English-language periodicals, including the weekly Caribbean Business, continue to publish.

The daily El Vocero de Puerto Rico also seems on the verge of ceasing operations after slashing salaries and eliminating employee benefits. EFE