Workers Left Behind as S&P's Wealth Skyrockets

Company cuts overtime, denies raises despite record profits

New York, New York — As S&P refuses $16 weekly raises for its NewsGuild-represented employees, the company today announced stratospheric earnings of $5.66 billion last year.

The company’s net income in 2016 soared 82 percent, to $2.11 billion, and it was holding $2.4 billion in available cash and cash equivalents at the end of the fourth quarter.

The raises the Guild seeks, totaling $177,000 a year to cover more than 200 members at S&P, would compensate for cuts in overtime pay. The weekly $16 is not additional income, nor an extra expense for S&P.

“While S&P hauls in record profits in the billions of dollars, their negotiators sit across the bargaining table and tell us with straight faces that our members should be giving back,” said NewsGuild of New York President Grant Glickson. “They brazenly fail to connect the dots between the work our members do and the company’s financial success.”

In a letter last week, Glickson urged S&P Global CEO Doug Peterson to join the talks personally.

Noting that S&P returned $1.5 billion to shareholders in 2016, Glickson said “it’s clear that everyone except employees are reaping the benefits of S&P’s meteoric success. We think it’s time for Mr. Peterson to hear what his representatives at the table are telling our members about their value.”

Contract talks began May 2016. The latest session is taking place today. The Guild represents S&P analysts, researchers, editors, administrative and operational staff.

“We’re asking the company to show us the kind of respect that we bring to our jobs every day,” said Robert Langeder, an S&P administrative assistant who serves on the Guild Bargaining Committee. “We could hardly make a more modest request than what’s on the table now, and yet they still tell us it’s too much. Where does S&P think it would be today without the experience, skills and loyalty of its employees?”

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About NewsGuild of New York

The NewsGuild, Local 31003 of the Communications Workers of America, represents nearly 3,000 media professionals and other employees at New York area news organizations, including The New York Times, Thomson Reuters, The Nation, The Daily Beast and Time Inc.