Reuters journalists upset with letter from guild

Joe Pompeo of Yahoo News reports Monday that some Reuters journalists aren’t happy with a letter from the Newspaper Guild of New York that was sent out comparing their plight of working without a union contract to the situation in Egypt.

Pompeo writes, “In a letter circulated Friday shortly after Egyptian protesters succeeded in ousting Hosni Mubarak from his 30-year autocratic rule, the Guild, which represents 420 U.S. Reuters employees (mostly editorial staffers, of which there are 2,900 globally), circulated a letter that seized on the timing of the revolution, which Reuters journalists have been covering.

“‘Historians will consider in years to come what was at the heart of this upheaval but what seems evident now is that it sprang from long-running and expanding inequality between Egypt’s rich and poor, powerful and powerless. When the poor and powerless unite, though, they can speak with a loud voice,’ reads the letter, which was also posted online. ‘From Tahrir Square to Times Square, inequality is something Guild members know about, especially this week as Thomson Reuters released stellar corporate results for last year and the last quarter.’

“The message apparently didn’t go over too well, according to several staffers.

“‘This is an inappropriate comparison and a number of guild members are unhappy about this tone,’ said a person who received the letter. ‘What next? Are we laboring under the yoke the way Martin Luther King Jr did?'”

Read more here.