WaPo Union Approves New Contract; City Paper: This 'Could Get Nasty'

Under the new two-year contract, yet to be ratified by the newsroom, managers could identify 25% of employees who wouldn’t fall under the last-hired, first-fired seniority rule.

The Washington City Paper’s take
: “Say the Post decided it needed to trim 10 reporters from its Metro staff. In the seniority-protecting Washington Post, the laying-off would have started with the recent hires—often the young, workaholic types that managers really want to retain. Now, under the unapproved contract, Metro’s top managers would be able to set aside 25 percent of the guild-covered staff and say to them, in effect: Even though you were just hired, you’re protected from the layoffs….If