750 Staffers Strike At The Washington Post

More than 750 Washington Post employees said they had walked off the job Thursday, refusing to work for 24 hours in the biggest labor protest at the company in nearly half a century.

Workers marched in a picket line outside The Post’s offices in downtown Washington, waving “Strike” signs, ringing bells, blowing horns, beating drums and chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, our salary floor is much too low!”

But even as strikers asked readers to abstain from the newspaper and its website for the day in solidarity, editors and other managers carried on with many of the tasks that go into producing a daily news report, from writing articles to operating printing presses.

Union members said they are protesting a stalemate in bargaining with the company that has left workers without a contract for 18 months. They also object to the company’s recent offer of cost-saving buyouts to staff members, saying that the terms are stingy and that the ostensibly voluntary packages are being coerced by a threat of layoffs.

Company executives deny the union’s claim that it has bargained in “bad faith” and say they still hope to reach a contract agreement by the end of the month.

“We respect the rights of our Guild-covered colleagues to engage in this planned one-day strike,” a company spokesperson said. “We will make sure our readers and customers are as unaffected as possible.”

The company expressed confidence that it would be able to print and deliver newspapers as usual Thursday and Friday, while keeping its website updated as well.