MOSCOW: Over 750 staff members of The Washington Post newspaper walked off the job for 24 hours on Thursday, joining the largest strike at the company in 48 years, Sputnik quoted the newspaper report.
The Post employees said the main reason for the protest was the fact that the company had left staff without a contract for 18 months and there was a stalemate in negotiations, as well as the company’s cost-saving buyout offer to employees under the treat of layoffs if it is rejected, the report said.
“This is a declaration by hundreds of Washington Post staffers saying that if the company is to work with us fairly, it has to respect its employees,“ one of the staff members, Sarah Kaplan, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Another issue is salaries, with reporters demanding a minimum of US$100,100, while the newspaper’s latest offer is US$73,000.
“Our salaries are not keeping up with inflation, or keeping up with our competitors,“ Kaplan said, adding that many employees have left the company for other media organisations as a result.
Meanwhile, company officials insisted that they respect workers’ rights and expect to sign labour contracts by the end of the year, adding that the strike will not seriously disrupt the paper’s operations.
The rally occurred as the company faces challenges related to internal leadership and economic problems in the global media industry, The Washington Post reported, saying that after a rapid growth under the ownership of Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, the company is expected to lose about US$100 million this year and preparing to face about 240 voluntary layoffs, which is about 10 per cent of the current staff.
The previous large-scale protest at The Washington Post occurred in 1975 and lasted 20 weeks, with replacement workers hired to keep the paper running. –Bernama
