Originally published June 4 2005
Union employees at Reuters protest outsourcing of news jobs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Union employees at Reuters are protesting the wire service's outsourcing of US jobs, most recently transferring the editing and caption writing of photos to Singapore and Toronto offices. The union is using leaflets, critical ads and web initiatives to fuel its protest. They argue that outsourcing undermines the quality of Reuters' journalism, pointing to a string of high-profile errors, mostly originating from a newsroom in Bangalore, India. Reuters executives said the "error rate" from Bangalore didn't exceed company guidelines and that the "migration" of jobs to Asia and Canada from the United States and Britain is about more than cost-savings and involves boosting the number of stories and images available to the public. Hundreds of information technology jobs have been moved overseas, to Thailand and India, including at least 40 from Reuters' offices in Hauppauge and Lake Success, where, as recently as a year ago, at least 450 people worked.
Union employees at Reuters are stepping up their campaign against the wire service's outsourcing of U.S. jobs, most recently transferring the editing and caption writing of photos to its Singapore office and some Internet work to Toronto.
Members of the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America have distributed leaflets outside Reuters' office in Times Square.
To support their position that outsourcing undermines the quality of Reuters' journalism, union activists point to a string of high-profile errors, most originating from a small newsroom set up last year in Bangalore, India.
Reuters executives acknowledged that some mistakes had occurred but said the "error rate" from Bangalore didn't exceed company guidelines.
They also said the wire service's "migration" of jobs to Asia and Canada from here and Britain is about more than cost-savings and involves boosting the number of stories and graphic images available to newspapers, Web sites and other customers.
Union official and editor John Phillips, who handed out leaflets Friday, said news consumers should be concerned about Reuters' offshore initiative because "it affects the quality of your news.
No guild member has received a pink slip because of outsourcing, but six to eight are "at risk" - primarily in the Washington office - because of last month's opening of the global photo-editing desk in Singapore, according to Bill O'Meara, secretary-treasurer of the union's New York local.
A Reuters spokeswoman said outsourcing would not reduce its pool of journalists, which totals 2,300 worldwide, but that some of the 100 affected workers may leave because they don't like their new assignments.
"We are just trying to make better use of the resources we have and to add even more content."
Schlesinger also said he was offended by the guild's suggestion - which the union has denied - that American journalists are superior to their foreign counterparts.
Separately, graphics for Latin America, once produced in Miami, have been farmed out to a regional vendor.
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