Disparaging Looks

Guild Ads Link News Quality Risk to Pay Cuts by Thomson Reuters

Business Wire, Feb 08, 2010

NEW YORK — The Newspaper Guild-CWA issued the following:

The union representing U.S.-based employees at Thomson Reuters Corp. (NYSE:
TRI; TSX: TRI) today launched a multimedia campaign that asks
whether the companys illegal imposition of nearly 10 percent in pay
cuts on its journalists and other employees will reduce the quality of
Reuters news and information.

Billboard trucks will roll daily through Manhattans financial district
and midtown with the message: Reuters is bad news for its employees. Is
it bad for your bottom line? The billboards refer readers to reutersexposed.com
for information about the profitable global media companys refusal to
continue contract talks with the Newspaper Guild of New York, which
represents about 420 of the companys journalists, technicians and
support staff throughout the country.

The Guild also launched a targeted online campaign informing Thomson
Reuters financial clients about the dispute and questioning whether the
companys strategy of attacking its staff would hurt news quality.

Unlike many distressed newspaper companies, Thomson Reuters is
financially strong. Its third-quarter 2009 underlying operating profit
rose 3 percent, beating analysts forecasts, while underlying operating
profit margin rose to more than 22 percent. And it paid its CEO Tom
Glocer $36 million in 2008.

Yet its best offer to the employees who report and distribute vital
information to the financial community would cut compensation by nearly
10 percent even more for some. Instead of staying at the bargaining
table to acquire an equitable agreement, management negotiators declared
that the talks had reached impasse on January 19 and said they would
implement most of their compensation-cutting proposals during the year.

Company managers seem oblivious to the contradiction of asking
journalists to make extraordinary efforts to cover the news clients need
for crucial financial decisions, while asking them and their families to
make do with less, said Guild President Bill OMeara.

The Guild claims the unilateral implementation of new terms was illegal
and filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor
Relations Board, which has the authority to order the company to make
whole all employees who wrongfully suffer losses.

We expect to prevail and force the company to restore all compensation
that its illegally taking from our members, OMeara said. Thomson
Reuters justifies its actions with the usual empty rhetoric about
needing flexibility to meet the challenges of the 21st
century
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