The WGA East slammed HuffPost and took goal on the Trump administration in an announcement Thursday, following the information that the corporate shall be shedding 30 editorial staffers within the coming weeks.
“Administration has chosen to slash our newsroom by over 20% at a time when the Trump administration is waging an unrelenting sequence of assaults on probably the most marginalized members of society, which is why it’s so essential that HuffPost proceed to teach the general public and maintain these in energy accountable — solely now we’re anticipated to take action with fewer reporters, editors and designers,” the assertion learn.
The union additionally says that HuffPost administration has refused to share any info to again up its personal claims that the layoffs have been financially essential, including that the newsroom had “a yr of record-breaking site visitors and nonstop protection of a divisive election.”
As famous within the memo despatched to HuffPost staffers by editor-in-chief Danielle C. Belton on Thursday, some workers are being supplied buyout packages, which might finally assist reduce the impression of layoffs by permitting employees to voluntarily go away.
Nevertheless, whereas the WGA East acknowledged that as a win because of protections from their newest collective bargaining settlement, the union says it’s “disenchanted” that many will now should resolve between relocating and taking a buyout — and that anybody who does take a buyout is an “immeasurable expertise” the newsroom has now misplaced.
“At present, greater than ever, we’re grateful for the robust severance protections we secured by way of collective motion — however we’re extremely disenchanted that administration has chosen to make these pointless and unwarranted cuts,” the assertion concluded.
The information of the HuffPost layoffs, which Belton attributed to “rising challenges to our enterprise,” got here simply days after the Washington Publish introduced that it could be shedding about 100 workers. Each are simply the most recent in a gentle stream of media layoffs over a tumultuous few years.
The WGA East isn’t the one labor union with Hollywood ties to just lately criticize the Trump administration because the inauguration, although it is among the first. Earlier this week, IATSE issued an announcement saying the President had “gone too far” in escalating tensions between america and Canada.
