Now we know what the value of those “lifetime” jobs are that they’re squabbling about over at The Boston Globe. Would you believe that it only comes down to a “lump-sum payment of $33,000 plus severance?”

Earlier this week, I questioned the relevance of  “lifetime” jobs given the vagaries of the 2009 economy, especially the notion that the Newspaper Guild would actually be foolish enough to put lifetime job guarantees for 170 people ahead of the survival of the business and jobs for everyone else in The Boston Globe’s workforce. The Globe’s parent, The New York Times Co., has threatened to close the newspaper down unless it gets some $20 million in savings from its unions to help cut into the $85 million the Globe is projected to lose this year.

Well, the negotiations have continued, and according to The Wall Street Journal, the latest “proposal under consideration by The Boston Globe’s largest union includes a pay cut of 8.4 percent and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees held by 190 members in exchange for a $33,000 payment plus severance for each of those guaranteed employees who gets laid off, according to two people briefed on the terms.”

There are some other wrinkles in the contract negotiations, such as expanding the workweek to 40 hours from 37.5 hours (another oldie-but-goodie union benefit that should have died long ago), but I’m scratching my head over the negotiated payout to waive the lifetime job guarantee.

I agree with what former newspaper editor and Reflections of a Newsosaur blogger Alan Mutter said about this—that “the idea of lifetime jobs seems hopelessly quaint in this era of Darwinian globalization, continuous technological disruption and profound economic uncertainty.” Anyone who thinks that any job is guaranteed to them for life regardless of whatever else may be going on around them is living in a fantasy world, in my view.

Having said that, the actions of the Boston Newspaper Guild here seem totally preposterous. Why would they sell out “lifetime” job guarantees for a measly $33,000 per person? Isn’t that a terribly piddling amount to get per person to give up a “lifetime” job?

“The key sticking point in [the Globe] negotiations has been the existence of lifetime job guarantees held by 190 members hired before 1992,” according to the Journal. 

“According to the proposal, the company after Jan. 10, 2010, can lay off any of those employees in exchange for the lump-sum payment of $33,000 plus severance,” the Journal reports.

No one close to the negotiations in labor or management is talking about this, of course, and I’m sure when they finally do, there will be some standard BS from the union about how this $33,000 payout is really a good thing and the very best they could do for the workers in this circumstance, blah, blah, blah.

Still, I can’t help thinking—only $33,000? A lifetime job guarantee is only worth $33,000? And this is what the union took the newspaper to the brink of a shutdown for? This is the best they could do for their members?

Everyone has their price, and some come more cheaply than others. Judas sold out Jesus for 40 pieces of silver; the Boston Newspaper Guild did it for $33,000 per head.

Whenever the union gets around to putting the PR spin on this sellout, I hope they’ll spare the platitudes and simply admit the obvious—that lifetime job guarantees are a joke and the $33,000 payout simply reflects the notion that despite all the union rhetoric, it’s a worthless and unsustainable concept for working people in the 21st century.

Get my latest blog updates and workforce management news by following me on Twitter.