Workers at the Washington Post walked out during lunch on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, protesting the company's refusal to provide a fair wage proposal.
Workers at the Washington Post walked out during lunch on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, protesting the company's refusal to provide a fair wage proposal.

New York Times staffers protest shareholders meeting, Washington Post workers walk out at lunch

On Wednesday, workers at the New York Times and the Washington Post engaged in collective actions, mobilizing hundreds of workers demanding fair contracts. Both groups called on newsroom management to get to the negotiating table and agree to contracts raising minimum pay immediately.

“We are all worthy of fair pay, no matter what our title is,” said Katie Mettler, vice president at the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and a Post reporter covering police, courts and incarceration in Maryland. “We are worthy of fair pay no matter our race or gender or identity.”

“We’ve been bargaining for nine months and the company still has not given us a thorough and fair wage proposal,” said Kathleen Floyd, a steward at the Post who works in public relations for the company.

Hundreds of workers gathered in Franklin Park in downtown Washington, D.C. across the street from the Washington Post’s main newsroom. Other workers walked out during lunch across the country.

Washington Post workers pose in red Guild shirts in Franklin Park across from the Washington Post in downtown Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.

Around the same time in New York, hundreds of New York Times workers rallied at the company’s annual shareholders meeting, calling on the company to reach an agreement and consider the proposals of about 2,000 unionized workers at the company.

Their demands:

  1. Drop the givebacks you are demanding from The Times Guild in contract negotiations at a time of overwhelming financial success for the company.
  2. Agree to just cause with no exceptions for The Times Tech Guild’s first contract and all future contracts with Guild units, and stop firing workers without cause.
  3. Reappropriate the funds needed to close the gap between The Times Guild’s contract proposals and the company’s, which amounts to less than $15 million — a mere fraction of the $400 million in stock buybacks that has been authorized to go to shareholders.
  4. Discuss the contributions of Guild members to the success of the company and how you plan to recognize them in a manner that upholds the values of the company.
  5. Commit to regular, frequent bargaining sessions with all Guild units in negotiations.
  6. Reach an agreement on a new contract with The Times Guild without further delay.

    The actions occurred just two days after hundreds of workers at Insider walked off the job for a day, protesting layoffs threatened by the company.