Sometimes you have to stop and watch history being made. Today’s ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after 18 days of mass demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square was one of those times. As usual, Guild members at home and traveling to the region helped tell the story of this revolution and the echoes it raised around the world.
Historians will consider in years to come what was at the heart of this upheaval but what seems evident now is that it sprang from long-running and expanding inequality between Egypt’s rich and poor, powerful and powerless. When the poor and powerless unite, though, they can speak with a loud voice.
From Tahrir Square to Times Square, inequality is something Guild members know about, especially this week as Thomson Reuters released stellar corporate results for last year and the last quarter. There’s plenty of recognition by TR managers that Guild members are among the most productive employees at the company, but no indication that any part of the money we help bring in will trickle down to us.
As most other media companies struggle, ours has remained profitable through the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression, and returned last year to revenue growth of 4 percent in the fourth quarter and 1 percent for the full year. Revenues were $13.1 billion, and the underlying operating profit margin was 19.6 percent.
$2 billion cash mountain
There’s a $2 billion mountain of cash – underlying free cash flow in corporate-speak – that Tom Glocer says will be used to “keep investing in the business and pay dividends.”
There’s an 8-cent increase in the dividend, which translates into a $36.4 million annual raise for the Thomson family, headed by David Thomson, the richest man in Canada. That’s based on the family’s 455 million-share holding we reported last month. The family already gets $527.8 million a year in TR dividends from its holdings, which amount to a 55 percent stake in the company.
And get this: the company is raising its target for savings from $1 billion to $1.7 billion. Apparently a $2 billion cash mountain isn’t big enough. Part of those savings – some $2 million a year – is coming directly from our pockets, at least until justice prevails, in the form of cuts in retirement contributions, overtime and shift differential pay, as well as pay cuts for recently hired employees and more shifting of medical costs to employees.
Most of the savings aren’t going to Main Street investors, or even Wall Street investors. They’re benefiting a few very rich people who are getting richer at our expense.
No thaw in contract talks
You’d think all that good financial news would loosen the company’s grip on its collective wallet – if you didn’t know the history of the corporate negotiating team’s rapacious conduct at the bargaining table over more than two years. Impasse, work rules, a refusal to collect our dues have been some of the highly unusual and hostile tactics we’ve been living with for more than a year. Add to that the recent escalation of our health care costs and a cutback in the amount of choice we have in 401(k) retirement investments and you have to wonder where all that money we help them make is going.
Exit Schlesinger, enter Adler
This week also saw the announced departure of David Schlesinger as editor in chief. He's been replaced by Stephen Adler, a former BusinessWeek editor who has worked on the Professional side of Thomson Reuters for the last year. The lesson here may be that it’s not just lonely at the top – it’s mighty slippery too. Just ask the demonstrators in Tahrir Square.