Union asks Thomson Reuters to agree to mediation in stalled US contract talks

The Newspaper Guild of New York suggested that, for at least 90 days, both sides turn to Martin Scheinman, a New York arbitrator who has mediated previous disputes with Reuters over the past 12 years.

“As you know, the Guild and Reuters have had a great deal of difficulty in this round of negotiations,” Guild president Bill O’Meara said in a letter to Jay Krupin, the company’s external labour counsel. “You think it’s our fault, the Guild thinks it’s Reuters fault, and neither of us will convince the other that they are wrong.  In situations like these, parties often turn to mediators. I think that makes sense here.”

O’Meara said that if management accepted the concept but preferred another mediator the Guild would certainly consider it. “The Guild remains committed to achieving a fair contract for our members at Thomson Reuters, an agreement that doesn’t lower their standards of employment,” he said in a statement.

The two sides last met on 6 January when management negotiators declined to make a counterproposal to a comprehensive package the Guild had offered in December. The union’s offer made what it called a major movement on management’s key demand for greater use of discretionary pay.

The dispute is tied up in litigation, with the National Labor Relations Board investigating numerous Guild charges, including one that management broke the law by declaring impasse in the talks on 19 January 2010 and imposing work rules that the union says are costing its members a net total of more than $2 million a year. ■