BOSTON (AP) – Members of the union representing about 1,200 reporters, editors, photographers and sales people at The Boston Globe on Friday ratified a new five-year contract that guarantees wage increases and cuts health insurance costs.

The Boston Newspaper Guild, the newspaper’s largest union, had been without a contract for 31/2 years.

The new contract is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2001 and lasts through the end of next year. Wages for the first four years will increase by a total of about 7.5 percent, similar to raises granted to members of other unions at the Globe, the newspaper and the union said.

Raises scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1 and July 1 next year amount to an increase of about 2.1 percent.

In exchange for more flexibility in subcontracting non-editorial union functions and other concessions, the newspaper increased its contributions to the Guild’s health fund that will reduce employees’ weekly payroll contributions by almost 50 percent.

“It was a long, difficult process, but as this vote indicates, we ended up with an agreement our members can be pleased with, particularly the reduction in their health care costs,” said Steve Richards, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild.

Under the settlement, the top reporter wage will increase from $1,260 per week in 2000 to $1,387 per week by the second half of 2005. The average Guild full-time employee salary will be around $1,160 per week by the end of the new contract.

“The new agreement represents a fair resolution of several complex issues for both the Globe and the Guild and was the result of concerted effort by both bargaining committees especially over the last nine months,” said Globe senior vice president and lead company negotiator Greg Thornton.

The Globe is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The New York Times Co.

AP-ES-08-06-04 1930EDT