UPDATE: Thomson Reuters and Guild in Spat Over Union T-Shirts

By: E&P Staff The New York Newspaper Guild said late Tuesday it has filed two unfair labor practice charges against Thomson Reuters over what it says is a sudden and unfair ban on wearing red T-shirts with pro-union messages during labor negotiations.

The Guild charges say it is a "long-standing practice" to wear the red union T-shirts "to show solidarity" during contract talks.

In its complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, the Guild local alleges the ban violates federal law because only Guild t-shirts are singled out, and because the alleged edict amounts to implementing a dress code without bargaining with the union "as required."

"This is the first time in the union's more than 30 years at Reuters that management has been so rattled as to ban a display of union support," Guild President Bill O'Meara said in a prepared statement. "Our members are more than a little riled at management trying to curb their right to show solidarity with their union."

According to the union, hours before a bargaining session newsroom employees were ordered not to wear the red Guild T-shirts, "if they could be captured by television cameras using the newsrooms in New York and Washington, D.C. as a backdrop to (Thomson Reuter's) fledgling web-based video product, 'Insider.'"

But a Thomson Reuters spokesperson Wednesday said the company had not imposed some wide-ranging ban on the union garb.

"Thomson Reuters respects our journalists' desire to express themselves but we must ensure that newsroom operations, the professional quality of our news product and the customer experience are not disrupted in any way," the spokesperrson said. "Only those journalists who sit near the television studios, and are visible within camera shot, were asked not to wear the Guild's red shirts and rather display affiliation with something less visually obtrusive."

According to the Guild, there have been three bargaining sessions to replace the contract that expires Feb. 28. "The company is proposing a 117-page rewrite of the current contract that offers no promise of negotiated pay levels," the Guild said in a statement.