July 10, 2007
More hiring at Thomson
as Reuters jobs stay empty
Read any good job postings lately? Probably not at Reuters. Management has made it clear that most empty positions are likely to stay unfilled, at least through the end of this year. But it’s a different story at Thomson Corp. Even before the proposed merger with Reuters has gotten regulatory approval that is still months away, Thomson continues its plan to hire more journalists worldwide so it can offer a home-grown alternative to Dow Jones news, which it also offers to its clients.
A typical Thomson posting sought “energetic, smart candidates for a real-time business newswire” to cover publicly traded companies and market news. Sounds a lot like what many Guild-represented reporters at Reuters do, except instead of looking for the experience and expertise present among our members, the posting encourages applications from “recent graduates with requisite interest.”
Thomson is not alone in beefing up its editorial staff, even as Reuters seems intent on shedding workers. Bloomberg plans to expand its 2,300-person news operation by more than 10 percent – at least 240 more reporters – this year. This expansion is part of Bloomberg’s strategy for maintaining an edge over the Reuters-Thomson combination, according to the Financial Times.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is also aiming for more staff in Washington, Asia and Europe if its bid for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal succeeds.
Whatever else you can say about Bloomberg and Murdoch, they know how to make money. Do they know something Reuters managers don’t?
TV joins other Guild workers in 35-hour workweek
J
uly 1 was a great day for Guild workers in Reuters Television. Finally, they joined the rest of us in a 35-hour workweek, down from 37.5 hours. It was one of the last issues to be resolved in the last contract negotiations. While 2.5 hours may not sound like a lot, it works out to an hourly pay raise of more than 7 percent for our members in TV. Any TV employees assigned to continue working their old 37.5-hour weeks will get 10.7 percent more than their old pay rate for doing so when time-and-a-half is included. It’s about time. The workweek for TV has been out of whack for more than a decade.
And speaking of contracts …
It took a while but you should now have a hard copy of the latest Guild contract. We’ve been working under the terms of this contract since it was ratified early last year, and it has been available online at the Guild Web site (http://www.nyguild.org/ReutersNews/ReutersSettlement.pdf). But there’s no substitute for having the red-covered book on your desk where it’s available when you need it. If you don’t have one, ask your steward or call the Guild at 212-575-1580. The current contract runs through February 28, 2009.
Changing of the guard at the Guild
Peter Szekely, former Reuters unit chair, is now serving as the New York Guild’s secretary-treasurer – a position comparable to vice president – after being elected to fill the job left vacant when ex-Secretary-Treasurer Bill O’Meara succeeded retiring Barry Lipton as president. Guild members at Reuters elected Debby Zabarenko, a correspondent in Washington, to serve out the remainder of Szekely’s term as unit chair. A new term begins November 1. And new elections will be held then.
NYC Techs offered buyouts to avoid Hauppauge moves
With the Midtown Data Center scheduled to close in less than a year, management is offering buyouts to all 12 remaining New York City-based Technicians and would allow as many as six of them to leave the company with severance packages instead of having to transfer to Hauppauge.
Management representatives told the Guild they plan to run the data center at 40 East 52nd Street with only six Technicians until it shuts down next May. They said there are no plans to lay off any Techs this year if fewer than six of them take the deal, even though the cover letters each of them received erroneously linked the buyout to layoffs by saying “Reuters is trying to avoid or minimize involuntary layoffs.”
A Technical manager, however, told members in a recent meeting that the number of Tech jobs would have to be cut by 10 next May from the current Tech workforce of 24. Since the late 1990s, the number of Technicians has been shrinking steadily through attrition and voluntary buyouts, because of several reasons, including the deal Reuters made in 2000 that launched the company now called BT/Radianz.
The Manhattan Techs have until July 26 to decide whether to accept the buyouts, which include two weeks pay per year of service, plus an additional 19 weeks of pay, plus a sliding scale of two to seven additional weeks of pay, depending on length of service. The package also includes a year of continued medical coverage for employees with at least 10 years of service and six months of coverage for those with less than 10 years, as well as outplacement assistance or up to $1260 toward training costs.
If none of the Techs take the deal, management representative Glen Russo told the Guild that as many as six of them would be transferred to the Hauppauge Data Center. Under a 25-year old provision of our contract, involuntary transfers would occur in inverse order of seniority, employees whose one-way commutes would be lengthened by at least 25 miles may choose to be relocated at the company’s expense and those who decline to transfer would receive severance of only one week of pay per year of service.
The Guild has neither endorsed nor criticized the voluntary buyout deal.
Last year, management eliminated three New York City Tech jobs after closing the John Street Data Center in lower Manhattan. Although the cuts were made without involuntary layoffs, the Guild filed a grievance because management failed to offer an available Controller job in seniority order to all Techs, including those in Hauppauge, and it failed to offer the buyouts to any Hauppauge Techs, even though they are part of the same Technical Operations Department in which the jobs were being cut.
At an arbitration hearing on June 21, management attorney Michael Cooper sought to defend management’s position by arguing that there was no contract violation because no one was laid off.
Paper or E-mail – What’s your preference?
With the Thomson deal and other concerns looming, communications between Guild officers and members are likely to be more frequent – and possibly more critical – than you’re used to. So we’re working now to shore up our lines of communication. This means bringing the company’s Common Sense distribution list up to date. If you’re not getting Common Sense in your Reuters e-mail, let us know at nyguild@aol.com with a cc to glen.russo@reuters.com. Also, please help us keep in touch with you by cooperating when your steward or other Guild folks ask you to confirm the best e-mail address and contact information for you. This is the best way to learn what’s happening on the Thomson merger. Experience so far has shown we’re unlikely to get the first word from management.
Should we shift away from the paper copies of Common Sense and rely solely on the electronic version that arrives in your e-mail inbox? You should already be getting Common Sense in your Reuters e-mail. We’re thinking about making that the primary method of distributing Common Sense. If we did, stewards would be asked to print out and post copies of each issue on Guild bulletin boards, as they do now. And they would print paper copies for those who absolutely can’t deal with e-mail. This would save money and a few trees.
Let us know what you think at nyguild@aol.com.
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7/10/07