By: E&P Staff The Newspaper Guild of New York plans to take the Reuters Group to court over the company's decision to outsource editorial jobs to India. According to a press release, leaders of the guild told the U.S. arm of Reuters that they are violating the collective bargaining agreement between the company and the guild. The union represents about 500 employees at Reuters.
"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 Barry Lipton, New York Guild president, in a statement.
Lipton added: "Besides exporting good jobs out of America, the company's plans at 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."
On Monday, London-based Reuters announced plans to eliminate 20 editorial jobs -- including 12 guild-represented positions -- in the U.S. in favor of 60 employees in Bangalore, India.
The process started in April when Reuter's CEO Tom Glocer, looking to cut costs, started outsourcing jobs to India. The Bangalore bureau, according to the release, only reported on companies not covered by U.S.-based journalists. The latest announcement, however, intends for Indian employees to follow companies on U.S. turf.
In a memo posted on Romenesko, Reuter's Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger explained to employees that the move is part of the drive "to make sure editorial is as good and as efficient as possible." And that the most "interesting opportunities will be in covering U.S. equities, where Reuters has struggled to put enough staff resources on that huge market for years."
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