Newspaper journalists dispute settled by mediation

A dispute between newspaper publishers and journalists over a new collective agreement was resolved in December 2001 by a final mediation proposal. The conflict mainly arose from a long-running disagreement over authors' rights issues, which was resolved through compensation payments. Furthermore, the deal provides for an 8.7% pay rise over three year - a relatively standard outcome in the 2001 bargaining round.

On 23 November 2001, the Swedish Union of Journalists (Svenska Journalistförbundet, SJF) gave notice to the Swedish Newspaper Publishers' Association (Svenska Tidningsutgivarföreningen, TU) that industrial action would start in newspaper companies on 4 December. SJF is the trade union organising Swedish journalists of all kinds in all media, and has 19,000 members of whom about 8,000 work on daily newspapers. TU is the trade and employers' organisation for almost all newspaper publishers and other companies in the Swedish media industry.

SJF had been negotiating with TU over a new collective agreement on pay and conditions since early spring 2001. However, the parties did not succeed in reaching an agreement and the negotiations were postponed until the autumn. After a long round of unsuccessful mediation, SJF gave notice on 23 November that industrial action would start against TU if no collective agreement were concluded by 4 December. The planned action included an overtime ban, a ban on work-related travel, and freezes on new recruitment and on hiring freelance journalists or journalists (including photographers) from temporary work agencies. Some 150 newspapers (of about 170 newspapers in Sweden) would have been affected.

On 28 November, SJF escalated the dispute by issuing strike notices at three photographic agencies and banning all types of work with pictures in almost all newspaper companies. The employers responded by giving notice of a lock-out affecting all photographers' work in the same companies. At the beginning of December, SJF gave notice of an all-out strike by all SJF members at about 50 newspaper companies over two two-week periods at the end of December.

However, on 3 December 2002 the parties announced that they had been called in by the mediators again, and that the talks were to be reopened on 4 December. The first industrial action measures started but were stopped three days later when the parties accepted the mediators' proposal. A new collective agreement was concluded on 7 December.

Authors' rights

The conflict was not an ordinary pay conflict, but also dealt with some of the 'general conditions' in the journalists' collective agreement. The stumbling block in the negotiations between SJF and TU was the issue of authors' rights for employed newspaper journalists. Essentially, the newspaper employers wanted to sell, to various interested parties, previously published material, articles and pictures - preferably at no cost at all in terms of payment to the journalists concerned. The employers wanted to hold all the economic rights to such material, though not necessarily the non-economic part of the rights.

In the 1998-2001 collective agreement, it was provided that employers would pay a sum of SEK 1,260 per year to every employed journalist for the republication of articles and pictures in electronic media (SE9705121N). In the new agreement which ended the dispute in December 2001, this sum was increased to SEK 1,800 per year. Furthermore, for republication for the purpose of a newspaper company's 'publisher and business developments', a new payment for every employed journalist of SEK 700 in 2002 (rising to SEK 750 from 2003) was agreed. The use of this centrally agreed sum may be negotiated at local level, with local parties able to decide on the distribution of the payment (they could, for example, agree to use it for training). The individual journalist keeps control of when and how articles and pictures may be re-used.

Cooperation agreement

The new collective agreement provides for a general pay rise of 8.7% spread over three years for newspaper journalists. The pay increase is in line with the average rise across the whole economy in the 2001 bargaining round.

The agreement also contains a provision that the parties should work towards the establishment of a 'cooperation agreement' (samarbetsavtal), which should aim to facilitate future negotiations. In the words of the mediators: 'the aim of creating a cooperation agreement is to set down joint opinions on important issues for the media business, and to create a basis for good employment, a good pay development, good working conditions and employment security. An agreement for cooperation may contain issues such as the development of local agreements on authors' rights, the application of pay deals, and education and skill development, as well as studies of the journalists' work environment'.

A specific part of the cooperation agreement will be a 'negotiation agreement' (förhandlingsordning), aimed at laying down a firmer procedure in future negotiations. Negotiations over a new collective agreement should start at the latest three months before the current agreement runs out. The parties should ask for mediation if they have not agreed a new deal a month before the current agreement runs out.

After the new deal was announced, both parties commented that they were satisfied. For SJF, there have been no restrictions placed on authors' non-economic rights and the right to conclude local agreements on these matters remains. The journalists will keep their control over material to be republished, and the pay agreement is at the same level as other deals in the media business. For TU, the new deal gives companies opportunities to make business arrangements without having to discuss the question of payment in every single case, which means new and more practical solutions in the future. The agreement provides newspaper employers with a central norm to be discussed in local bargaining.

Commentary

The newspaper employers basically want to have the economic rights to employed journalists' material sold to and republished in other media, for 'business and publishing activity reasons'. This is an attitude that they, however, have been forced to moderate in the last few years. The journalists also believe that they have legitimate demands relating to economic rights. In the mid-1990s, the author's rights situation for republishing in electronic media was regulated by agreement, but at a level very much lower than SJF had wished. The employers have long wanted arrangements to reflect the importance to newspaper companies of developing their business and publishing activities, believing that they, as employers, have a right to use the material that employed journalists have produced in their job and been paid for through their salary.

The new collective agreement provides for extra compensation to be paid to the journalists, with the exact amount to be negotiated in local collective agreements based on central guidelines. The journalists also have a strong interest in protecting their authors' rights for quality reasons and in order to control where their material will be published and ensure that nothing is distorted. This is a right they will keep (this right includes a veto on republication for advertising reasons).

The financial remuneration finally agreed for republication in the electronic media and for the employer's other purposes is arguably an insignificant amount for both parties. It is unclear if the parties are finally on the road to further discussions on this issue, or if the journalists will resist any further developments.

The new collective agreement runs for a period of three years until spring 2004. In the meantime, a cooperation agreement will be agreed following the pattern set in industry and other sectors since 1997 (SE0105195F). These cooperation agreements have shown in the 2001 national bargaining round that they can endure pressure from several somewhat tense bargaining situations. (Annika Berg, Arbetslivsinstitutet)