Wall Street Journal: Employee walk-out quietly makes a loud statement

Employees of Dow Jones & Co.'s (NYSE: DJ) Wall Street Journal have been threatening to walk off the job for nearly a month now, and it appears that today is the day. In a statement published at Poynter Online, WSJ employees are making clear that their greatest and overt concern is the prospering of journalistic integrity. The walkout, it is indicated, shall only be for a partial day, but the message sent is undeniable. Wall Street Journal employees are concerned that new ownership of the company could threaten the quality of that publication and the individual work experience.

It goes without saying that WSJ editorial staff is some of, if not the absolute, finest in the country. By taking this stand and making this statement, WSJ employees are not only demanding that their personal concerns be addressed, but the are also sending a strong message across this nation. That message, like it or not, is the heart wrenching fact that freedom of the press is being pressured in this country and it's time for information connoisseurs of the content provision and reception camps to take notice that we need to maintain constant vigilance over our precious First Amendment.

As a supporter of free information and worker's rights, I hereby give my statement of support for the actions taken by WSJ employees today. I've never been an advocate of labor strikes but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I truly hope that this temporary walk-out shall be an effective means to the goals of fair workers' compensation and journalistic integrity at The Wall Street Journal. In a side note, as of this writing, Dow Jones is down 1.5% today.

Independence, integrity and fair employee compensation, you can't get more American than that, now can you?