Washington Post Union Told to Be Grateful for Jeff Bezos

As the union representing Washington Post reporters attempts to negotiate for higher salaries and retirement plans, the Post told the union they should be happy they have jobs thanks to Jeff Bezos.

Splinter reports that the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which represents the journalists of the Washington Post, has remained in an intense contract dispute with the Post in relation to salary raises and retirement plans. As the dispute continues, the Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild has released details of the negotiations, at one point stating that they were told they were lucky to have a job thanks to Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Post and Amazon CEO.

David DeJesus, an advertising staffer who co-chairs the Post’s bargaining unit said in a statement, “Many of the employees see Jeff Bezos as a savior to the company. People are a little bit hesitant to be openly critical of him because of it.” During the last union negotiations in 2015, retirement benefits were cut but across the board but annual salary increases were maintained. Now it seems that the Post is taking a more hard-line stance against the union. This is reportedly due to Bezos’ ownership as management attempts to cut severance pay and gain more leeway in the firing of employees.

The Post management has attempted to do away with annual pay raises entirely, instead suggesting the implementation of an individualized merit-based system which the News Guild has argued would amount to a pay freeze for a number of employees. Post management also suggested a lump sum bonus in the first year of a contract followed by $8 or $10 weekly wage increases in the second year of the contract. The News Guild took to Twitter to outline the negotiation tactics of management at the Post after their most recent discussion.

Post staff writer Fredrick Kunkle, who represents editorial employees as part of the union stated, “‘You should be happy you have a job’ is what we’re hearing. He continued, “We’re almost perplexed at how intransigent the company has been.” Post spokesperson Shani George stated that “we do not have anything to share at this time,” while representatives of Jeff Bezos did not reply to a request for comment from Splinter.

David DeJesus stated, “I don’t want to dog Mr. Bezos,” he continued, “I’m just saying that there’s something out of line when a company is owned by the wealthiest man in the world and we’re fighting for fair wages and a better 401k match.”