Reuters Activist John Phillips
Joins Local as its Fourth Rep.
John Phillips, grievance chairman and a former unit chair at Reuters, where he worked for 29 years as an editor and sportswriter, will join the New York Guild on May 22 as its fourth full-time representative, Guild President Barry Lipton announced today.
Phillips, whose most recent Guild role at Reuters was grievance chair, will join Dona Fowler, Bob Townsend and Anthony Napoli as one of the local’s representatives who bargain contracts, press grievances and otherwise service the 3,760 members working under the New York Guild’s 21 contracts with employers.
“John’s valuable experience and vigorous union activism can now benefit all of our members, just as it’s benefited our members at Reuters,” said Lipton. “We’re lucky to have him on our staff.”
Besides serving as a representative, Phillips will devote a portion of his time as the assistant editor of “frontpage,” the local’s bimonthly newsletter.
“Having our staff of representatives back at full strength will enable us to develop and pursue many sorely needed organizing projects,” said Lipton.
Phillips joined Reuters on May 3, 1977 as a reporter/deskperson on its general news editing desk in New York, then the hub of the London-based global news agency’s modest presence for financial and general news reporting in the Western Hemisphere.
In the middle 1980s, Phillips went to the Sports Desk, where he specialized in boxing, covering numerous title fights in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, as well as the rape trial of Mike Tyson. He also covered other major sporting events, including thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown series, several World Series, the Calgary Olympics and figure skating. Since Reuters editorial managers did away with its New York Sports Desk several years ago, Phillips has been a financial news editor.
In early 1984 the Guild unit at Reuters was at its low ebb. Contract talks had been at an impasse for a year, the company had suspended dues checkoff, employees were working under management’s unilaterally posted conditions and the parties were in litigation. If that wasn’t bad enough, both sides’ point men had died and the Guild’s chairperson was about to leave the unit. It was then that Phillip stepped in.
Although he had never been active in the Guild before, Phillips agreed to lead the demoralized unit when no one else was interested. He led a series of informal talks with management that led to a resumption of negotiations and eventually a settlement that restored checkoff and several benefits that had been lost during the dispute.
He served as Guild Unit Chair until 1990. Afterwards, he remained active as a steward, a negotiator and for the last six years, as a grievance chair. In all, he has served on five bargaining committees at Reuters, including the most recent one that completed a contract earlier this year after a three-year struggle. He is also a winner of the local’s Tom Keenan Award.
“I’ve often wondered if we would even have a Guild unit at Reuters today if it hadn’t been for John,” said Reuters Unit Chairman Peter Szekely. “Much of history is shaped by people who rose to the occasion from obscurity at a critical time. For the Reuters unit, that person was John. And our working lives are better because of it.”
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5/18/06