Hauppauge Technicians have volunteered for all eight of the buyouts management recently offered, after telling the Guild the company needed to eliminate the Tech positions because of a lack of work.

But the Tech managers were too hasty. They soon found there still was work to be done and extended the employment through the summer of several Guild members who took packages. The buyouts, which averted involuntary layoffs, follow other Tech job cuts in the past few years.

Techs leaving under the latest buyout plan are getting severance packages that include 19 weeks pay, plus three weeks for every year worked, plus three months of paid medical insurance. There also was an option for salary continuation rather than taking an immediate lump sum severance payment.

There has been no suggestion of buyouts for Editorial Guild members. Meanwhile, the company is hiring Guild-represented staff for the new “Innovation” Web-based financial television project at 3 Times Square. There has been a reshuffle in other TV operations, with two Washington-based Guild Camerapersons having taken severance packages.

When Thomson acquired Reuters in May, the biggest layoffs were expected in London, where both companies have union-represented journalists and technicians. But our colleagues in Britain’s National Union of Journalists (NUJ) fought back and in the end the number of layoffs – “compulsory redundancies” – was exactly zero. Instead, 70 staffers volunteered to take buyouts, with no layoffs in prospect there.

It happened because the NUJ’s units – “chapels” in Britain – at both Reuters and Thomson worked closely, at one point getting more than 100 people from both newsrooms together for a joint meeting, bombarded management with pointed questions about the buyout deal and generally demonstrated union solidarity.

“This just shows what can be achieved when people are willing to hang together and stand their ground,” said Myra MacDonald, co-leader of the Reuters London NUJ chapel.

Our contract with Reuters America LLC expires February 28, 2009, which means bargaining for a new one starts by the end of October. We’re putting together a negotiating team now. To bargain effectively, we need to know what matters most to you – pay, health insurance, employment security, training, among other things – so, expect to see a questionnaire in your email soon. In the past, the pre-bargaining questionnaire has been distributed by mail; this time we’ll have it online to make it easier. Watch for it.

If you get into trouble at work, or see a colleague in trouble, it’s not always easy to know where to turn. For Guild members, there’s help. Your first call should be to your Guild representative if you realize you’re in a situation where discipline could be taken. And if you see a colleague in this situation, and talking directly to the colleague doesn’t work, get in touch with your steward, Unit Chair Debby Zabarenko or our representative at The Newspaper Guild of New York, John Phillips (212-730-1507).

That’s a much better plan than going to your manager. The Guild can’t do its best to help you or your colleague if your rep doesn’t know what the problem is, especially when management already knows. And if you’re the one in trouble, come clean with your rep. If your rep knows the full scope of the problem, there’s a better chance that an acceptable solution can be worked out.

Also be aware that management is within its legal rights to monitor your work e-mail to gather evidence against you or your co-workers in a disciplinary process.

You’ve probably already seen requests from managers to participate in the new Thomson-Reuters appraisal process, with instructions on how to cut and paste your old objectives into the new system. We give the same advice now as before: the appraisal process as currently configured is seriously flawed and has not been sanctioned by the Guild. Actively participating in the process is unlikely to help you and could come back to haunt you if you agree to goals and fail to meet them. The Guild suggests you participate as little as possible and sign nothing.