Leaders of the Newspaper Guild of New York told managers of the company's main U.S. operating subsidiary, Reuters America LLC, on Monday that they would be violating the collective bargaining agreement if they follow through on plans announced earlier in the day to export U.S. jobs to the company's low wage haven in Bangalore.
The collective bargaining agreement, which is currently being renegotiated, allows the Guild to pursue violations though a grievance process that includes binding arbitration.
"We intend to use every legal tool available to us to stop the company from taking a step that not only harms our members, but may also harm the quality of its service," said New York Guild President Barry Lipton.
Editorial managers of Reuters, which gets more than 90 percent of its revenues from selling news and information to players of fast-paced financial markets, told employees that the new plans to transfer some Editorial functions to Bangalore would eliminate up to 20 existing jobs, including 12 Guild-represented jobs in the United States.
As part of CEO Tom Glocer's job and compensation-slashing "Fast Forward" program, Reuters last April became the first major media company to base U.S. corporate reporting functions offshore. At first, the Bangalore bureau reported on earnings of small and medium-sized companies that usually were not covered by Reuters' U.S. journalists. The new plans call for Bangalore workers to cover larger companies' earnings, press releases and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and analysts' stock alerts. Reuters also has sent some U.K.-based non-editorial jobs to Bangalore.
"Besides exporting good jobs out of America, the company's plans at a minimum violate the spirit of a 1998 deal it made to add jobs in New York City in exchange for millions of dollars worth of tax breaks on its new U.S. headquarters in Times Square," said Lipton.
The Guild, Local 31003 of the Communications Workers of America, represents nearly 500 print, television and still picture journalists, technicians and other employees at Reuters.
Newspaper Guild of New York
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