A cadre of recently terminated Washington Post employees returned to the newspapers headquarters this week, staging a protest that underscored the entitlement culture that has long permeated elite media institutions.
According to the Gateway Pundit, the groupcomprised largely of technology staffattempted to enter the building only to discover that their key cards had been deactivated and their access revoked, a basic and unsurprising security measure in any private-sector workplace.
The spectacle of laid-off staff insisting they effectively possess a right to their former positions highlights a broader progressive mindset that treats employment not as a contract between employer and employee, but as a permanent guarantee insulated from market realities.
Hill Rag reports that My personal opinion is that its union-busting, said Lisa Gusty, a Washington Post senior software engineer and co-vice chair of The Washington Post Tech Guild. Theyre trying to sow confusion and sort of pit us against one another. The Guild, which represents employees in engineering, product design and data roles at the Washington Post, has framed the layoffs and access restrictions as an attack on organized labor rather than a management decision in response to financial or operational pressures.
Gusty made her remarks after a wave of layoffs and new access limits rattled the papers technology workforce and prompted speculation about whether managements actions comply with federal labor law. On Feb. 10, Tech Guild members gathered at Post headquarters and attempted to enter their offices, but Post security guards turned them away, an encounter the union recorded on video in an apparent bid to dramatize a routine HR process.
After being denied entry, Guild members regrouped to plan and support the affected workers, Gusty said, as the union prepared to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. The Guild has also launched a GoFundMe page to bankroll a potential strike, effectively asking the public to subsidize a political fight against a private employers staffing decisions.
Were fighting to get Jeff Bezos and the new CEO to roll back these cuts, Gusty said. Weve been fighting this too long to let this go. The same Twitter/X account amplifying the protest has labeled the firings illegal, even as critics note that no amount of chanting outside the building will override managements lawful authority to restructure its workforce, and that the more prudent course for these workers would be to accept reality and seek employment elsewhere rather than attempt to shame their way back into the Washington Post.
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