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Reuters, union in pact
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March 16, 2000: 1:56 p.m. ET
British news agency, U.S. newspaper guild reach tentative contract agreement
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - News and information company Reuters Group PLC on Thursday said it has reached a tentative contract agreement with the union representing about 25 percent of its North American staff, after an 18-hour session that concluded more than two years of talks.
"They went through quite a long session and ended this morning with a tentative agreement," said Nancy Bobrowitz, a Reuters spokeswoman said of the company and negotiators from the Newspaper Guild of New York.
Representatives from both concerns refused to disclose details, but said more information would likely be revealed on Thursday or Friday.
According to an internally distributed company memo, the new contract would go through February 2003. Reuters (RTRSY: Research, Estimates) and the Newspaper Guild of New York plan to meet again on Thursday to iron out last minute details, the memo said.
Reuters America, the main U.S. operating unit of the London-based company, has since late 1997 been in negotiations with the union, which represents some 600 reporters, technicians and administrative staff at the global news agency. Affected staffers have not received a pay increase since their contract expired in February 1998.
Guild Secretary Treasurer Bill O'Meara said the union is pleased with the pact, and would pass it onto its members with the union's blessing.
"The guild negotiating committee is unanimously recommending acceptance of the deal," he said.
The agreement comes after tensions between the players had grown increasingly intense, as the talks, for which job security was a critical issue, lingered.
Indeed, in January, some 80 percent of the editorial staff in the New York bureau held a "sick out," during the busy quarterly earnings reporting season. Many reporters who did not come in to work were not paid for that day.
Reuters' staffers had authorized the union to strike, and, sources close to the situation said, the company had been taking steps to prepare for a strike.
"We did not call a strike and we are pleased that that step did not become necessary, and we were able to work out a contract," O'Meara said.
American depositary receipts of Reuters tumbled 12-3/16, or about 9 percent, to 120-1/4 in New York trading on Thursday afternoon. 
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Reuters
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