WaPo Employees Plan to Turn on Company, Walk Off the Job
Hundreds of unionized journalists at The Washington Post planned a 24-hour walkout Thursday after contract talks stalled with the Jeff Bezos-owned publication.
The employees’ union, the Washington Post Guild, posted a video on X of Post employees airing their grievances and promising to join the Thursday protest.
“I’m worth a fair and transparent pay process,” said WaPo senior publicist Kathleen Floyd.
Copy aide Claire Healy added, “I’m worth a living wage.”
Gene Park, a video games reporter and critic, claimed, “I’m worth raises that keep up with inflation.”
“I’m worth equal pay to my colleagues, regardless of my race or gender,” added assistant editor Heben Kelati.
And Lenny Bernstein, a health and medicine reporter, claimed to be worth “job protections that value my years of service.”
Kelati and Floyd returned to the video say that a year and a half of talks with Post management had only led them to believe that the company wasn’t negotiating “in good faith.”
“Post Report” senior host Martine Powers then revealed that what the union meant by “good faith” was that the company hadn’t offered employees a deal they considered “fair.”
“The have failed to offer us a fair deal that keeps pace with the economy and our competitors,” she said, just before another group of employees explained that they wouldn’t be reporting for work on Thursday.
The video then concludes with a request for viewers to write to the Post in support of the union and avoid reading anything published by the Post on Thursday.
You can watch the video below.
Workers @washingtonpost have been in contract negotiations with our bosses for 18 months.
But the company is refusing to pay us what we’re worth or bargain in good faith.
So on Dec. 7, we’re walking off the job for 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/GCraL1I0nm
— Washington Post Guild (@PostGuild) December 5, 2023
Overall, public response to the threatened walkout has seemed to fall short of what the union was probably hoping for. For example, by noon Wednesday the campaign for letters to the management of the paper had received only about 3,500 responses of the 6,400 it had set as a goal, despite the fact that the video had been viewed on X over 2.3 million times.
For another thing, a brief scroll through the responses to the X post showed no support whatsoever for the union’s cause.
If you’re worth more than they’re paying you then prove it and go get another job. If WaPo disappeared the world would be a better place. I doubt anyone pays you more to be an activist pretending to be a journalist. If your goal was to garner public sympathy then you failed.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) December 6, 2023
if you are worth more than the company is paying you, you can find another company
You should not have to resort to shakedowns
The truth is that you lie about russiagate, climate change, even Dave portnoy’s pizza fest. Petty and useless
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) December 5, 2023
make it longer than 24 hours. 24 days. Even 24 weeks. Make them feel it.
— BowTiedReactionary (@bowtiedreact) December 5, 2023
And my personal favorite:
So weird. I thought we were “better off”. pic.twitter.com/bB1q4caOPh
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) December 6, 2023
Fox News reported that the Post was expecting to lose $100 million in 2023, making it unclear where any raises or other compensation enhancements for union employees might come from.
One insider told Fox that Bezos, who bought the paper for $250 million in 2013, was operating the company more like a “conventional” business than many in the publishing industry were accustomed to.
“Bezos is so rich that none of this is mandatory,” the unnamed insider told Fox . “He’s acting like a conventional businessman running a conventional business. But is he, and are we? No one likes to lose money, of course. But the fact is, based on his net worth ($171 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index), he could absorb $100 million in annual losses *literally* for the next 1,500 years.”
“So, what are we then?” the insider asked. “An organization that has some value beyond what it can produce on the bottom line? Or just another business, subject to the same harsh financial discipline as any business? His actions suggest the answer is the latter.”
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