The D&C's union has overwhelmingly voted down a contract offer that the paper's management described as its "firm, final and best."

The Newspaper Guild of Rochester rejected the contract by a 51 to 4 vote on Friday.

What happens next? This is where things could get interesting. When the company announced the "final" offer a month ago, the union was taken a bit by surprise since, they said, talks had been improving. But the "firm, final and best" language paves the way for Gannett to declare an impasse and impose the contract.

In a one-page communiqu� to its membership dated Monday, union leadership told editorial staffer they hoped the lopsidedness of the vote against the contract worked to their favor.

"The Guild's bargaining committee will formally notify the company in a letter today and stress that the overwhelming margin (93 percent of the vote against the proposal) demonstrates the need to return to the table to find a middle ground on outstanding differences," the letter read. The guild will also ask the company to keep a federal mediator, which they just recently admitted, at future bargaining sessions.

The company hasn't said previously whether it would seek to impose the contract, releasing only terse, single-sentence statements about its long-running guild dispute (it's company policy not to comment on personnel issues). Tom O'Connor, the local Gannett operation's spokesperson didn't respond to an email query for comment Monday afternoon.