BOSTON: The management of The Boston Globe has threatened to begin the process of shutting down the newspaper in a dispute with its unions over $20 million in cuts.

The Globe's management says it has given its biggest union a copy of a notice it was prepared to file Monday if it was unable to agree on the concessions by midnight Sunday. The 60-day shutdown notice is required under federal law.

The deadline passed without word from the unions or the paper's owner, the New York Times Co.

The newspaper's largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, calls the move a "bullying" tactic by the Times Co.

The Times Co. last month threatened to close the Globe unless its unions agreed to $20 million in cuts, including half from the Newspaper Guild.

The Boston Globe's largest union said late Sunday it had proposed more than the $10 million in cuts sought by its owner to keep the newspaper running.

The New York Times Co. last month threatened to close the 137-year-old Globe unless its unions agreed to $20 million in labor concessions. The Globe's largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, was asked to make $10 million in cuts.

In a statement released two hours before a midnight deadline Sunday, the Guild said its proposal calls for "tremendous sacrifices, across virtually all categories of compensation and benefits."

It was unclear whether the Globe's other unions had made proposals for the remaining $10 million in cuts.

The Times co. would not comment on the Guild's proposal.

"We have not reached an agreement. The deadline is midnight tonight," Times Co. spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said in an e-mail.

The Guild did not release specifics on what kinds of wage or benefit cuts it had proposed to the Times Co. The union said further details would be made public once all Guild members have had a chance to review them.

Like many other newspapers, the Globe has been struggling amid declining advertising revenues and dropping circulation as readers migrate to the Internet. The Globe had $50 million in operating losses in 2008 and is projected to lose $85 million this year.

The Times Co., which bought the Globe in 1993, has said that of all its newspaper properties, the Globe has been the most dramatically affected by the recession and the advertising downturn.

New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said at the company's annual shareholders meeting last month that more needed to be done to align the Globe's costs and revenues.