Employees of the Washington-based The Washington Post, numbering 700 (approximately one-fourth of the total workforce), held a 24-hour walkout in accordance with a decision made by their affiliated unions to protest the suspension of contract negotiations and the expected layoffs.
The Washington Post Guild stated in a press release that they had been conducting contract negotiations with the newspaper's management for 18 months, but that the management "refused to bargain in good faith" and halted the negotiations.
IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT 240 PEOPLE WOULD BE LAID OFF
Union leaders emphasized that this is the first strike at the media organization since the 1970s and highlighted that the newspaper has recently experienced a stagnation in subscriber numbers.
Reports in the national press indicated that the subscriber count of The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has fallen from around 3 million in 2020 to approximately 2.5 million this year.
The newspaper's interim CEO, Patty Stonesifer, announced in October that 240 people would be laid off, citing financial difficulties.
News Source : AA
