Reuters reaches tentative three-year agreement with union

Reuters and the Newspaper Guild reached tentative agreement early Friday on a three-year contract.

The compromise agreement, which the bargaining committee recommends Guild members approve, came after a 21-hour bargaining session with new editorial chief operating officer Stuart Karle and a federal mediator.

“We’re pleased to have reached a tentative agreement that we hope will put our dispute with Thomson Reuters in the past,” New York Newspaper Guild president Bill O’Meara said in a statement. “We look forward to a more productive and cordial relationship with the new Editorial management team.’

The tentative pact was signed just hours before the expected issuance of a federal complaint against Thomson Reuters by the National Labor Relations Board. The tentative agreement aims to settle the NLRB complaint and to provide Guild members with cash compensation of $7.6 million for lost pay, to be distributed as follows:

$2.4 million upon ratification;
$2.4 million on the one-year anniversary;
$1.8 million on the two-year anniversary;
$1 million on the last day of the agreement.

The deal, if ratified, would also settle the charges on Twitter and social media. The company has agreed to negotiate with the Guild over a new social media policy. The company has also agreed to include language that will protect employee speech and other concerted activity as provided under U.S. labor law.

In addition to the cash payment, all Guild members will receive a 1.5 percent guaranteed general wage increase for each year of the new three-year contract, which totals 4.6 percent when compounded over the life of the contract.