Apr 14, 2011
Complaint Includes First Charge Involving Workers' Free Speech on Twitter
For updates on the Guild's fight for a fair contract at Thomson Reuters and the NLRB complaint, go to www.reutersexposed.com.
Citing massive violations of workers' rights at Thomson Reuters, the NLRB is filing a complaint against the media company and for the first time is charging an employer with illegally restricting its employees' right to use Twitter to communicate about working conditions.
In January 2010, Thomson Reuters declared an impasse and shut down bargaining with TNG-CWA Local 31003, which represents more than 400 journalists, technicians and other employees at the news service. The NLRB said the company's action and subsequent, unilateral pay cuts were unlawful.
"The NLRB's complaint affirms our belief that company negotiators weren't dealing in good faith and weren't respecting the rule of law," Local 31003 President Bill O'Meara said. "Our hope now is to move past the rancor and return to the bargaining table so we can give our members the certainty, security and respect they deserve."
Unique to the case is the NLRB's complaint that the company illegally reprimanded a reporter who posted this on Twitter: "One way to make this the best place to work is to deal honestly with Guild members."
Reporter Deborah Zabarenko, who authored the tweet and is the Guild's unit chair at Thomson Reuters, said she sent the message to a company Twitter address after a supervisor invited workers to post comments about making Reuters a better place to work.
"The next day the bureau chief called me at home," Zabarenko said, quoted in a New York Times story about the case. "He told me that Reuters had a policy that we were not supposed to say something that would damage the reputation of Reuters News or Thomson Reuters. I felt kind of threatened. I thought it was some kind of intimidation."
TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said the NLRB's complaint "is an extremely important recognition that this is protected activity for workers and that they have a right under law to have a voice."
"The best path to free speech is still through a union where you don't have to fear reprisal or job loss for speaking out on behalf of your fellow workers," Lunzer said. "It is sad that a news organization had to be reminded that free speech is the law of the land."
