Tech workers at the Washington Post announced Monday that they have formed a union. They plan to hand-deliver a letter management Monday morning that asks the company to voluntarily recognize them.
Many employees in the Post‘s newsroom and business operations are eligible to unions, but the tech workers—product managers, system engineers, people who work on the company’s Arc XP content management system—are not, a quirky legacy from the days when the Post located its WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive business in the management-friendly commonwealth of Virginia. The Post began to integrate tech employees with its news operations in 2009, but the divide remains.
The group organized with the Washington Baltimore News Guild as the Washington Post Tech Guild. In their announcement, they say their organization comprises more than 300 people, the majority of people who work on tech for the Post.
They hope to address several issues, like the fact that they’re at-will employees, says Luke Connors, a staff software engineer. Pay at other tech companies dwarfs pay at the Post, Connors says, but that’s less of a concern for many staffers: “People are at the Post for a reason,” he says. “They’re mission-driven workers.” The Post’s tech workers hope to get access to the same benefits others at the Post enjoy, Connors says, and they want to negotiate over the company’s return-to-office order and being on call at nights and weekends. Engineers are scheduled for on-call shifts during those periods with no extra compensation, Connors says.
Tech workers at the New York Times organized in 2022 and arrived at a contract with the organization late last year after contentious negotiations saw them strike during election week. NPR reached an agreement with its digital workers in 2023. Connors says both groups were an inspiration to them.
Washingtonian has asked the Post to comment on the new union and will update this article when we hear back.
The company laid off 25 people from the newly created Office of the CTO Friday. “It’s not lost on us that the owner of the company has fought unions aggressively at his other companies,” Connors says of Post owner Jeff Bezos. His hope is that the company will recognize the union quickly and negotiate a contract so people there don’t feel like they have to leave the company to advance in their careers. “A lot of this is about having a long career at an institution,” he says.
Disclosure: Washingtonian’s editorial staff is also represented by the Washington Baltimore News Guild.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
