Reuters US staff plan to strike for first time in decades
- Hundreds of Reuters staff to strike on Thursday amid negotiations with management over pay
- Staff balk at proposed three-year contract with guaranteed annual pay increases of 1 per cent
Thomson Reuters Corp journalists in the United States are preparing to launch a daylong strike Thursday, the first walkout in decades among the media company’s long-unionised staff.
Employees plan to start a 24-hour strike at 6am New York time Thursday after claiming the company didn’t fairly negotiate pay increases, according to the Communications Workers of America’s NewsGuild, which represents US-based Reuters reporters, photographers and video journalists.
The group said about 90 per cent of the 300 or so Reuters employees it represents agreed to participate.
The news organisation proposed a three-year contract with guaranteed annual pay increases of 1 per cent, according to the union, which would erode employee spending power against a backdrop of 9 per cent inflation.
Members of the guild believe Reuters managers aren’t working with them in good faith, and have also filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board. They join an expanding group of media workers that have recently pushed back against what they characterise as unfair treatment by their employers.
“In 2020 we were all asked to step up,” said energy reporter Tim McLaughlin, a member of the union’s bargaining committee. “Everyone just rose to the occasion, and we thought – wrongly as it turns out – that we would get something in return.”