Once, back in the day, well, I was unemployed a lot. I tried to make a living as a free-lance writer, and while I can’t say that I am the worst free-lance writer who ever lived, I can say that I am the worst free-lance writer who is still alive, because Brad and Harry both starved to death, leaving me with basically no competition.
I mention this because, in those days, there were two kinds of writers in Washington, DC—those who worked for the Washington Post and those who did not. Those of us who did not work for the Post hated those who did with basically an insane level of jealousy, which meant that, even on those rare occasions when we did have food, we could scarcely digest it.
Well, how the worm has turned. Post writers have just learned what life is going to be like in the Bezos universe—basically, hell in a nutshell. Postie Steven Mufson explains:
“The Washington Post announced large cuts in retirement benefits on Tuesday, declaring that it would eliminate future retirement medical benefits and freeze defined-benefit pensions for nonunion employees.
“The company also said that in negotiations that started Tuesday, it will seek to impose the same conditions on employees covered by the union — one of the first indications of how The Post’s new owner, Amazon.com founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, will manage relations with the staff of the news organization.
“The changes will hit hardest at employees hired before 2009 who could plan on receiving pension payments based on their income and years of service. Each of those employees could see scores — or hundreds — of thousands of dollars less over the course of a retirement. More recent hires do not have traditional pension plans.”
“[O]ne of the first indications of how The Post’s new owner, Amazon.com founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, will manage relations with the staff”? Ow! Ow! Ow!
Afterwords
Adding injury to injury, Steve tells us that the Post is also cutting its maximum contribution to an employee’s 401k from 5 percent to 1 percent. One percent! Yeah, cause that’s how billionaires roll!
