September 21, 2007

The time to act is now:

Reach out to Thomson

Unit-wide effort needed before merger

As the Thomson-Reuters deal goes forward, we need to reach out to our prospective colleagues at Thomson. Reuters Guild leaders have already done this by joining a trans-Atlantic union alliance of activists that includes Thomson editorial employees in Britain. But we need your help, as only those of you who work in the newsrooms or technical centers know the people who now are our competitors at Thomson – and who will quite likely be our co-workers soon enough.

In the United States, unlike Britain, Thomson employees have no union representation. If the merger comes to pass, they should be part of our union, with the same hard-won protections we enjoy. It would be to our mutual advantage. But we can’t hope to do that until we know who they are, what their jobs are and what their concerns are about the coming merger. That’s where you come in.

All you have to do is be alert to any Thomson staffers who may be working in comparable jobs to yours. View them as the potential co-workers they are. Ask them what they think of the coming deal, what the mood is in their workplaces. (What we’ve learned so far from those active in the Thomson union in the U.K. is that they are at least as anxious about the merger as Reuters workers are.) If they’re going to be part of our company and our union, the time to start welcoming them is now. And be sure to mention that, according to conversations some of our Guild members have had with Thomson workers and through other sources, our contract offers better pay and benefits than they’re getting now. Plus, they would have the kind of job security that only a union contract can offer. But we need to know more about them.

You don’t have to be a Guild activist to do this. You do have to be aware of what’s going on around you. If you’ve never played an active role in the Guild before, this is the time when even small efforts can bring big results. If you run into somebody from Thomson, talk to them. Tell them there are Guild leaders available to answer any of their questions. And let me, your shop steward or other Guild leaders know what you learn. Information is gold in this situation, and Reuters management is providing very little of it. We have to find things out for ourselves.

For those of us who have seen Thomson post jobs that cut into our turf – they’ve posted a job similar to mine in Washington on JournalismJobs.com – the thought of welcoming these current competitors can seem daunting. Just remember this practical notion: we’re stronger together than we are alone. The more members we have in our Guild, the more powerful a force we can be. And the more we know about the Thomson folks, the better job we can do in bringing them into our union.

In Unity,

Debby Zabarenko

Reuters Unit Chair

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9/21/07