New York Guild and Thomson Reuters to resume stalled contract talks

The union, which represents 420 reporters, editors and technical workers at Thomson Reuters, told company managers on Monday it would resume “on-the-record bargaining” for a new contract. It said this follows a recent exchange of correspondence with the company.

The previous contract expired in February 2009. In January 2010 Thomson Reuters declared an impasse in negotiations and imposed new work rules. The union said the new rules were aimed at eliminating the Guild as the employees' representative.

Guild president Bill O’Meara said recent events had changed the picture. Company managers had said they planned drastic changes in benefits, including spiking health care costs, switching vendors for dental, vision, prescription and other coverage and eliminating many of the funds now available in retirement savings accounts. “We felt these changes would hit members so hard that we had to at least try to do what we could to stop or mitigate them.”

O’Meara said he had asked editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, a member of Reuters’ management’s  bargaining committee in 1998-2000, to join the talks when they resume on 4 November. ■