Senators cite labor row in forum pullout

Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both D-Mass., said Friday that they had backed out of a virtual conference hosted by The Boston Globe last week in solidarity with the journalists union there, which is in a yearslong dispute over a new labor contract.

Markey and Warren were scheduled to participate in panels Wednesday as part of a conference titled Globe Summit 2021: The Great Recovery, according to an archived schedule.

A spokesperson for Warren said Friday that her team had informed the Globe that she no longer wished to be in the conference, which was to have featured a discussion of corporate activism between Warren and the chief executive of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company.

“We are hopeful that a fair contract with better wages and stronger workplace protections can be reached and urge both sides to continue negotiating in good faith,” said the spokesperson, Nora Keefe.

In a guild news release Friday, Markey said, “I urge The Boston Globe management to negotiate and settle a fair contract with workplace protections for these workers without further delay.” The senator, a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal legislation, was to have been on a panel about “a greener, more equitable economy.”

Heidi Flood, a Globe spokesperson, declined to comment. The last contract between the Boston Newspaper Guild and the Globe expired at the end of 2018. A significant sticking point in negotiations over a new contract, according to the guild, is the Globe’s desire to codify its ability to outsource journalistic functions.