LONDON: Unionized journalists at The Washington Post said they would stage a 24-hour strike on Thursday to protest staff cuts and what they call management’s failure to bargain in good faith in contract talks that have stretched on for 18 months.
The planned one-day walkout would mark the first general work stoppage at the Post since the bitter, 20-week pressmen’s strike of 1975-76, when Katharine Graham was publisher, according to union officials.
The latest labor clash comes a little more than a month after William Lewis, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, was named chief executive and publisher of the Post as the venerable Washington daily newspaper was projecting a year-end loss of $100 million. Lewis is due to take charge on Jan. 2, 2024.
The Post is one of many news outlets struggling to devise a sustainable business model in the decades since the Internet upended the economics of journalism and digital advertising rates plummeted.
Executives at the Post, which is owned by billionaire Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, said at the time of the Lewis announcement that they were offering voluntary buyouts across the company in a bid to reduce employee headcount by about 10 percent and shrink the size of the newsroom to about 940 journalists.
The Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which represents more than 1,000 editorial, advertising and other non-news staff at the Post, said mismanagement by the previous publisher led to nearly 40 layoffs last year — half from the newsroom — and the company was now seeking to cut another 240 jobs through buyouts.
Representatives for the newspaper’s management did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the labor dispute.
According to the union, management has threatened to impose more layoffs if too few staffers accept voluntary severance packages.
“That means fewer Post employees making the critical journalism that keeps our communities informed and holds our public officials accountable,” the Guild said in an online statement.
Moreover, after 18 months of contract negotiations, “the company is refusing to pay us what we’re worth or bargain in good faith,” the union said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “So on Dec. 7, we’re walking off the job for 24 hours.”
A Guild-produced online video features numerous Post journalists, including chief Ukraine correspondent Siobhan O’Grady, pledging to strike and urging readers to “respect our picket line by avoiding Washington Post journalism” during the walkout.
They assert the company’s wage proposals would fail to keep pace with inflation or with the pay of competitors.
The minute-long video ends with the refrain, “because we’re worth more, worth more than our bosses are offering.”
Of the 1,000-plus Post employees covered under the News Guild’s contract, more than 700 are dues-paying members of the union, while nearly 750 staffers have pledged to observe the walkout, Sarah Kaplan, chief guild steward at the newspaper, said on Tuesday.
“The paper will suffer for a day, and that’s not something we take lightly,” she said, adding that the strike is intended to send the message that “cutting and disinvesting in employees is not a path to success.”
Washington Post journalists plan 24-hour strike amid prolonged contract talks
https://arab.news/mka7e
Washington Post journalists plan 24-hour strike amid prolonged contract talks
- Walkout represents major work stoppage since 1976
- Newspaper is also trying to reduce workforce by 10 percent
Western media refute Trump’s claims Iran possesses Tomahawk missiles
- Speaking to journalists, Trump suggested Tehran used US-made cruise missile in school attack that killed over 170, calling the weapon ‘very generic’
- CNN, Sky News and analysts said that ‘neither Israel nor Iran use Tomahawk missiles,’ urged accurate identification to ensure credibility in public discourse
LONDON: Western media outlets and defense analysts have pushed back against claims by US President Donald Trump that Iran possesses Tomahawk cruise missiles, after he raised the possibility while discussing a recent strike on an Iranian school that has drawn international scrutiny.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump suggested Iran may have used Tomahawks in the attack, calling the weapon “very generic” and implying that multiple countries, including Iran, could have access to the system.
However, journalists and weapons experts swiftly disputed that assertion. They noted that Tomahawk missiles are US-manufactured cruise missile systems that Washington supplies only to a small number of close allies, primarily the UK and Australia. There is no credible evidence that Iran has ever obtained the weapon.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett referenced an investigation by correspondent Isobel Yeong that concluded “neither Israel nor Iran use Tomahawk missiles, according to experts.” Sky News and other Western outlets also challenged Trump’s remarks.
Analysts pointed out that Iran has developed its own domestic cruise missile systems, such as the Soumar and Hoveyzeh, which are believed to be based partly on older Soviet-era designs.
While these systems resemble cruise missiles in concept, experts say they differ significantly from the Tomahawk in design, propulsion configuration and operational characteristics.
While Iran has made substantial advances in ballistic and domestically produced cruise missiles over the past two decades, defense analysts said there is no verified evidence that Tehran holds the American-made system.
The episode reflects a broader pattern in which statements about military technology are rapidly scrutinized by open-source investigators and defense experts.
Experts say the distinction is important: accurately identifying the type of missile used in a strike can provide clues about the likely actor responsible, the launch platform involved and the broader geopolitical consequences of a strike.
Analysts also say that accurate identification of military systems remains essential for avoiding misinformation and for maintaining credibility in public discourse surrounding regional security.
Despite the growing body of evidence, the precise circumstances of the school attack nonetheless remain unclear, with investigators hampered by a lack of weapons fragments and limited access to the site.
Norway-based rights group Hengaw said the school was holding its morning session at the time of the reported attack and had at least 168 children and 14 teachers.
Trump said the US was continuing to investigate the incident. “Whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report,” he said.
