"We've had foreign staff who lived in terror that they would lose their positions because our pension was the only way they could ever retire."

Read Walt Baranger's e-mail to colleagues criticizing management's announcement that it is freezing the pensions of foreign citizen employees.

"I have been a foreign bureau employee for 27 years and was shocked at the content and curt tone of the letter I received at home earlier this month announcing that my pension plan was frozen. Period. Just like that. We are based abroad but we are expected to work just as hard and loyally for the paper as you all in NY. And we do, managing reporters' often complicated professional and personal situations in addition to our daily contribution to the paper's content. We expect the company to behave loyally to us in return. The unilateral decision of freezing a pension plan doesn't qualify to me as decent or acceptable."

"I remain grateful for the commitment to maintaining the Times' quality, even as our competitors have been forced to make compromises. That commitment should set the tone for these negotiations, acknowledging that maintaining excellence means supporting the people who do the excellent work."

"I hope you realize how devoted we are to the paper, and how far we go to get the news for you, the countless hours we put in to contribute to this great newspaper, way beyond the monetary compensation in return. This is the moment for you to step up, to show we're not merely anonymous numbers, that you care for our well-being, the same way we care for the integrity, and well-being of this great newspaper."

"As the Guild's letter states, the disconnect between the praise lavished upon us and the dismissive treatment we have experienced in negotiations has reached grotesque proportions. Talk without supporting action is by definition cheap, and a bit contemptuous to boot. The Times model is BASED on providing premium journalism; this is a business that is fundamentally about intellectual property -- that happens to be your labor force. Do what's right by your staff, and your brand will flourish. Do badly, and watch the staff leave or lose heart, and the readership flatten or slip."

"I'm sure that you must have certain pressures that I am not privy to, but I still find it troubling that The Times is compensating an executive at the expense of the rank and file, the very behavior that we criticize in our editorial pages. I am confident, nevertheless, that we can all find a way out of this struggle together. This is a wonderful and rare institution and you have made difficult and wise decisions in the past."

"Signed in memory of my colleagues Khalid W. Hassan, who was shot dead in Iraq, and Sultan Munadi, shot and killed near Kabul."

Read Walt Baranger's message to colleagues memorializing Hassan and Munadi.

"Like many of us who have worked at the NY Times for decades, and feel profoundly proud of -- and identified with -- the amazing product we put out every day, I feel that the gap between what Janet Robinson will be leaving with, and what we are being offered, is simply wrong."