Coffee breaks at Dow Jones' offices deemed successful

The union representing business journalists at Dow Jones operations such as the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s called for its members to have a “coffee break” at 11 a.m. to exhibit a show of solidarity.

The company tried to get its managers to prevent it from happening, but few apparently did so, according to an update posted on the union’s web site.

The union stated, “In many places, attendance was 100%. Sometimes it was higher — because in a couple of locations some management folks quietly joined us.

“In the World Financial Center, roughly 75% of union members turned up. Similar numbers have been passed along from bureaus across the country. In one office, ‘absolutely everyone’ took a break at 11 (of course there was just one reporter in the office at 11 Thursday morning, but he dutifully took his break — and then wrote in to thank everyone else.)

“In spite of the company memo instructing managers to deny breaks and write down the names of those attending, most middle-level managers support what we are doing because they’ve already been hit with the huge healthcare cost increases that the company wants to impose on us. Those middle-level managers are encouraging us.

“And why not? We never asked people to walk away from urgent work — in fact, we said not to. From the very beginning the message was clear: if you’ve got the kind of job where you get a break, you might want to take it at 11 and talk about the contract. If there was a problem with your boss, let us know.”

Read more here.