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Employees of the international news agency Reuters in the United States went on strike on Thursday for the first time in more than 30 years to demand that the company raise salaries to compensate for the strong inflation in the country.
Nearly 300 workers, including journalists, photographers, videographers, editors, producers and technicians, went on strike for 24 hours, according to The News Guild union.
The employees protested by wearing red T-shirts in front of the agency’s headquarters in New York, Washington, and other cities.
According to the union, the strike day is a response to the lack of progress in the negotiations to renew the company’s agreement and after the management offered the staff a 1% annual salary update.
The workers argue that, in the face of galloping inflation in the United States (more than 9% last June), this means in practice a pay cut, which also comes after many professionals have worked on the front line during the worst moments of the pandemic.
They also accuse the company of holding up negotiations for the renewal of the agreement and thus keeping their salaries frozen.
The protest coincided with the publication on Thursday of the quarterly accounts of Thomson Reuters, the news agency’s parent company, which between April and June posted a turnover of 1.61 billion dollars and saw its operating profit increase by 24% to 391 million dollars.
The company has said that negotiations with the union continue to seek an agreement and on Thursday, in a statement on the occasion of the presentation of results, the president and CEO, Steve Hasker, said that Thomson Reuters wants to invest in its business to move its current good momentum to a “long-term sustainable value creation”.
