Thomson Reuters and US union agree tentative contract

The preliminary agreement is for a three-year contract that includes a $7.6 million cash settlement for the union, a guaranteed 1.5 per cent annual wage increase, a limit on health care costs and a new social media policy.

The US National Labor Relations Board had said it would file against Reuters on numerous issues, among them accusations that it violated a reporter’s right to discuss working conditions when a supervisor reprimanded her for posting a Twitter message that said, “One way to make this the best place to work is to deal honestly with Guild members.”

The author of the post, Deborah Zabarenko, environmental reporter in Washington and head of the Guild at Reuters, sent that message to a company Twitter address after a manager had asked employees to send postings about how to make Reuters the best place to work.

As part of the settlement announced by the Guild, Thomson Reuters agreed to negotiate a new social media policy that would include language protecting employees’ speech and right to engage in other concerted activity about working conditions, as provided under US federal law.

The deal was negotiated under a new management team led by editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, who took over in February. Management's main negotiator was former Wall Street Journal general counsel Stuart Karle, who was appointed Reuters’ chief operating officer earlier this month.

“They changed the whole tone of the negotiations,” Guild president Bill O’Meara said. “They wanted to get it done. Two years of battling was capped in two days of negotiations.”

Both sides asked the board for a delay in filing its complaint. The union said it would ask the board to drop all charges if the new contract is ratified.

“A lot of the credit for this settlement being able to be reached in relatively short order has to go to the new editorial management team,” O’Meara said. “We are very optimistic that we can have an improved relationship with Thomson Reuters going forward. This settlement I think will help set the stage for that.”

Adler said, “This settlement will allow us to focus all our efforts on producing excellent journalism, which is what we all came here to do.”

The 430 editorial staff who belong to the Guild have worked without a contract since early 2009. ■