Guild Fires Up Picket at the Post

“We really should have brought a fire barrel,” laughed NoVA president Dan Duncan as dozens of Washington Post staffers, fellow Guild members and supporters tramped in a tight noontime picket-line Tuesday bundled up in winter coats, hats and scarves against the biting cold. “The louder we chant the warmer we’ll be!” shouted Guild Bargaining Committee member Tim Smith as colorful balloons bobbed in the icy wind on 15th Street...  
- report/photos by Chris Garlock

“Negotiations are in a really really tough place,” Guild Co-Chair Frederick Kunkle told Union City. Post management “has dumped a lot of terrible take-backs on the table,” including freezing pensions and attacks on retirement benefits and job security. “We’re just going to keep mobilizing to make this be a place where we can take a stand for treating workers fairly.”

"I don't like how they're trying to rip something away from us when there's no pressing need," financial writer Michael Fletcher said. "Listen. I respect [new Post owner] Jeff Bezos for the investments he has made in the paper. I've seen new faces in the newsroom. That's great. But there's no reason to freeze the pension. It's over-funded. It's just unnecessary."

Fletcher was referring to the pension, which includes workers hired before 2009. It is over-funded by more than 200 percent. It hasn't needed a dime in 20 years and won't need a cent for at least another 20 .

Pat Jacob, who works in advertising, said she's proud to work at the Post. "I feel good about the product we provide. I feel good about the advertisers we work with," she said. She marched during her lunch break with a heavy jacket pulled tight against the cutting wind. "We're going to stay out here," she said. "Because what they're trying to do to us just isn't fair." 
- includes reporting by Robert Struckman