With information from EFE
Workers at the international news agency Portal in the US went on strike for the first time in more than 30 years on Thursday to demand wage increases from the company to offset high inflation in the country.
Nearly 300 workers, including journalists, photographers, videographers, editors, producers and technicians, supported the 24-hour strike, according to The News Guild union.
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Employees in red T-shirts protested outside the agency’s headquarters in New York, Washington and other US cities.
According to the union, the day’s strike comes in response to the lack of progress in negotiations to extend the company’s contract and after management offered employees a pay rise of 1% per year.
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Workers argue that, given runaway inflation in the United States (more than 9% last June), that means in practice a pay cut, which comes even after many professionals worked on the front lines during the worst moments of the pandemic.
They also accuse the company of halting negotiations to extend the deal, thereby freezing their salaries while the company reports big profits and improves its business margins.
Portal: There is money
The protest coincided with the release this Thursday of quarterly results from Thomson Portal, the news agency’s parent company, which billed $1.61 billion between April and June and increased its operating profit by 24% to $391 million could.
In a video shared on social media, union members recalled that the company is worth around $50 billion and spends around $4 billion on share buybacks and paying dividends to shareholders.
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The company has said negotiations with the union are continuing to seek an agreement, and this Thursday in a statement at the presentation of the results, President and CEO Steve Hasker indicated that Thomson
Portal wants to invest in their companies to turn their current good times into “long-term sustainable value creation.”