Guild-Post OTR talks fail

Off-the-record bargaining talks between The Washington Post and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild have failed to produce agreement on a new labor contract, the Guild reports. "That leaves us where we were when we left off some months ago," says Fredrick Kunkle, co-chair of the Guild’s bargaining unit at the Post. "Returning to the open bargaining table is a sign of how unsatisfactory the Post’s proposals have been." The union is now "awaiting a wage proposal from the Post, some sign of compromise on the Post’s demand to cut severance pay, and some softening of its attack on job security," Kunkle adds. The union is also looking for improvements in retirement benefits, "a move that, given the huge surplus in retirement funds that the company controls, should be the easiest move of all," Kunkle said. In a related story, the Guild has also filed a ULP with the NLRB over the Post's disciplinary action against Kunkle for his "Jeff Bezos Wants To Give More Money To Charity. He Should Pay His Workers First" op-ed in The Huffington Post.