Washington Post Reporters, Other Employees Launch 24-Hour Strike

In the biggest fallout between the outlet’s management and labor since the 1970s, reporters and other employees at the unjustifiably esteemed Washington Post have declared a 24-hour strike, following 18 months of negotiation that failed to placate them. 

“Despite a year and a half of efforts, Post management has refused to bargain in good faith for a fair contract that keeps up with inflation and our competition,” The Washington Post Guild said in a statement announcing that workers were walking out, with the strike in effect all Thursday, from midnight to midnight. The strike will include more than 700 employees, the union said, “including reporters, editors, cartoonists, visual journalists, advertising sales people and circulation drivers.” 

The union’s grievances include “pay equity, raises that keep pace with inflation and our competitors, remote work policies, mental health supports, and a buyout package that seeks to reduce our workforce by 10 percent.” Seeing the demand for mental health benefits, we can’t help but think of Post reporter Taylor Lorenz, who — despite having lived a charmed life — memorably broke down crying on MSNBC, claiming she was the victim of PTSD and suicidal ideation springing from public reaction to her work: 

This is @TaylorLorenz crying claiming that she suffers from PTSD due to online harassment.

Lorenz sent an email to @ChristinaPushaw where she clearly states her goal of writing a hit-piece on @libsoftiktok — Her goal? To doxx another female with a goal of people harassing her. https://t.co/P3r3YUYq2C pic.twitter.com/IVyzN3SuKc

— John Curtis (@Johnmcurtis) April 19, 2022

In early November, the Post, which is owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, announced that former Wall Street Journal publisher William Lewis would become the paper’s new chief executive and publisher. At the same time, the Post disclosed that it was on pace to lose $100 million this year, and that it would slash its headcount by about 10% with a goal of ending up with about 940 journalists. 

Given the Post‘s dire financial condition, it’s not surprising that, on pay alone, the gap between the union and company positions is huge. According to the guild, workers are asking for a $210 weekly raise, and 4% a year over three years, while Post management is offering a slim $21-per-week bump, 2.25% in year one and 2% each in the second and third years of the contract.  

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

The union asked WaPo consumers to join the strike, via an open letter to “our dedicated readers”

On Dec. 7, we ask you to respect our walkout by not crossing the picket line: For 24 hours, please do not engage with any Washington Post content. That includes our print and online news stories, podcasts, videos, games and recipes. Instead, share information about our strike and send a letter to Post leaders in support of the people who make this institution run.

Don’t read it for one day?

I’ll do better than that.

I will support you by never reading that ridiculous, captured, fake news, racist rag again.

You’re welcome. https://t.co/fdj7QXEXvL

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) December 6, 2023

This 24-hour Pearl Harbor Day strike is the biggest labor action against the Post since a pressman’s strike that spanned 20 weeks, from October 1975 to February 1976.  The country and the world would be better off if the strike lasted 24 years. A full catalogue of its sins would span many pages, but, for starters, this is an organization that: 

• Helped sell the public on the utterly disastrous and amoral invasion of Iraq. “It is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction,” the trusted paper wrote in a February 2003 editorial green-lighting the regime change operation. 

• Boosted the Russia Collusion hoax and collected a Pulitzer Prize for pumping out falsehoods that undermined Donald Trump’s presidency. Along the way, the paper ran a bogus story based on the purported findings of an anonymous group called “PropOrNot,” which accused ZeroHedge and many other outlets of being “routine peddlers of Russian propaganda” during the 2016 election. 

• Unquestioningly supported the Covid lockdown, mask and vax regime, cheering on the public health establishment and power-mad government officials as they inflicted a multi-faceted catastrophe on society.