Reposted from TNG President Jon Schleuss:
Last week I attended the Washington Post RAT-ificiation party in Washington, DC and it broke my heart with joy. Outgoing co-unit chair Katie Mettler showed a video about leadership. Have you seen the shirtless dancing guy? A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But followers are the ones that build a movement and you have to embrace them as equals.
“We helped each other stand up and fight for what’s right,” Katie told the Post members gathered at the party. “And for the people in our way — we told them to get…” (you can probably guess what I’m leaving out).
Congrats to Katie and everyone at the Washington Post securing a historic contract over Christmas. They won raises of 2.5% and fought off a lot of management’s demands through 18 months of negotiations. They won a good contract by organizing and building up more leaders across the company. Their fight escalated to a crescendo when they went on a historic strike in early December, getting practically every dues-paying member to withhold their labor for 24 hours. That sent a clear message to management, which brings anti-media and anti-union Jones Day lawyers to the table. Post workers demanded a fair contract. And they got it, building a movement along the way.