Washington Post Staffers Will Go on Strike Thursday
Washington Post Staffers Will Go on Strike Thursday
More than 700 Washington Post employees plan to walk off the job Thursday for a 24-hour strike. Post Guild, the union that represents most of the company's journalists, production specialists, and drivers expressed frustration over its ongoing contract negotiations with Post management in a letter t...
They've asked that people honor the picket line by not engaging with Washington Post content on Dec. 7:
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The Washington Post, NY Times and L.A. Times are some of the few organizations that foresaw the move to digital and are very profitable, while local newspapers laughed at anyone who told them in the 90's and 2000's that they needed to adapt, and those local papers are now disappearing (while still maintaining that the 'internet is a trend and not real publishing').
So, the smart business moves of the Post makes them one of the existing news media companies employing actual journalists that is making money. They can pay their staff accordingly to maintain that position.
Importantly: the family which owned the Washington Post during the time when they made that shift has since sold to Jeff Bezos. The Post could pay journalists very nicely out of his pocket change.
Who owns the company is irrelevant in the fight for fair wages and working conditions.
There's no need for a business owner to pay employees out of their own pockets, that's not a sustainable business, regardless of whether it's Bezos or just a garage owner with two employees. The Post, as a business runs profitably just fine on its own, with more than enough revenue to pay their employees fairly.
He could turn it into something like the Guardian, where it runs on an endowment. And it would be a trivial expense for him, with money he can't actually spend on himself over the course of his life.