After about 18 months, two publishers, three rounds of job cuts, and a daylong walkout, The Washington Post and its union have finally reached a tentative contract agreement.
“The Post for weeks insisted there was no more room to negotiate, but Guild members’ tireless organizing brought them back to the table — and delivered yet another win,” the Washington Post Guild’s bargaining committee wrote to staffers on Friday alerting them to the deal.
“It has always been our goal to reach an agreement that addresses the needs of our employees and our business,” a Post spokesperson said in a statement. “We are confident this contract provides both and appreciate the efforts of all who have worked to make this happen. We are hopeful the contract will be ratified next week.”
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The agreement comes after a tenuous back and forth between the guild and the company in recent days, including a Dec. 31 ratification deadline set by interim CEO Patty Stonesifer. She warned Post staffers on Wednesday the offer proposed by the company last week would be the “best and final offer” it would provide.
The tentative agreement included an immediate pay bump of $30 a week for each member starting next month along with a 2.5 percent raise on April 1, according to the guild. The agreement also provides a 2 percent raise in April 2025 and April 2026. Staffers who accepted a buyout will receive a $500 bonus upon ratification, which is expected before the end of the year. The Post also agreed to a 60-day notice period before changing its current return-to-office structure, which mandates working out of the office three days a week.
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“This is without question the best contract the Post Guild has won in half a century. Thanks to the incredible solidarity Guild members have demonstrated these past 18 months, we are entering 2024 stronger than we have been in decades,” the bargaining committee wrote. “Though it does not include everything we hoped to achieve, the bargaining committee supports ratifying this agreement, and we believe it will position our union to continue making The Post a better workplace in the next three years and beyond.”
“I’m feeling really, really proud of my colleagues for standing together and looking out for one another and fighting so hard for a contract that was fair and true to the core beliefs that we all share, articulary after and through the difficult year and a half we’ve all had as Washington Post employees,” guild co-chair and local reporter Katie Mettler told The Daily Beast.
“This was not an easy fight,” Mettler added. “The Washington Post made us earn every win we got in this contract.”
The deal comes after a year of chaos at the Washington institution, one that has been bookended by job cuts; the departure of a dismally regarded publisher; the naming of two new ones; and a mass bleeding of talent, both through departures and buyouts, leaving the newsroom bereft of some institutional knowledge.
Its contract fight was also a point of frustration. While staffers had expressed their frustration about the prolonged negotiations to guild leadership, a source told The Daily Beast, Post staffers had generally operated in lockstep with each other. The guild engaged in multiple “lunch outs” throughout the negotiation, culminating in a one-day walkout on Dec. 7. Most recently, guild leadership encouraged staffers to write personal letters to incoming publisher Will Lewis and encourage him to wade in on their behalf.
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