HOLD THOSE THANK-YOU NOTES!
Dear Inquirer Guild Members:
You might have noticed today’s email from the publisher expressing her pleasure that the company can provide a $500 work-from-home stipend in this Friday’s paycheck. Just to be clear, this is not a gift. The reimbursement is a contractual requirement, an annual payment negotiated as part of the current collective bargaining agreement.
As always, we welcome communication from the company, but as journalists we expect the complete story. And perhaps a bit of compassion. The company’s “announcement” Friday of eight “positions” in the newsroom identified for “job elimination” never expressed remorse for the individuals involved. Not once. Nor did it explain what message it was sending by ending a team of diverse journalists created to help expand our coverage of communities of color and other underrepresented people in Philadelphia — not to its own employees, and not to other journalism entities or advocacy groups including the National Association of Black Journalists.
It did, however, find it “important to emphasize that we are also investing in our present and our future,” including by subletting a portion of our office space.
But not a mention of thanks to the eight journalists who have provided selfless work on behalf of The Inquirer, in some cases for decades, only to lose their jobs as a result of an assessment of “all aspects of our business.”
Well, the Guild is about people. To that end, see you at tomorrow’s noon meeting. The Zoom link for it is here https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86958074488
In solidarity,
Diane
