Thursday, 26 December 2024

New York Times Tech Staffers Go On Strike As Election Approaches

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The New York Times Tech Guild announced Monday it is officially on strike, one day before the U.S. presidential election.

“We are on ULP strike. We gave @nytimes management months of notice of our strike deadline, we made ourselves available around the clock, but the company has decided that our members aren’t worth enough to agree to a fair contract and stop committing unfair labor practices,” the union, which represents hundreds of the outlet’s tech staff workers, said.

From The Guardian:

The threat of a strike has existed within the company for months, raising questions over a potential disruption of election coverage. The newspaper giant confirmed in a statement that members would begin protesting outside the Times headquarters daily, beginning at 9am Monday.

The walkout is a result of a 10 September vote in which staff workers decided to go on strike at a critical time – election week – if an agreement was not made. With the largest subscription base of any American newspaper, Times readers will be widely seeking extensive election coverage.

The Tech Guild called the strike after increasingly intense negotiations between the guild and Times management failed to yield a contract agreement.

Kait Hoehne, Times senior software engineer and Tech Guild member, said the group was hoping to avoid a strike as negotiations had continued into late Sunday night. But tech workers were ultimately left feeling they had no other option after the management’s failure to agree on key issues, the Washington Post reported.

“After our Bargaining Committee continued to push for a fair contract over the weekend, management still refused to get serious and make a deal. Therefore, we are going on a ULP strike. See you on the picket line,” the Tech Guild stated.

“The Tech Guild’s roughly 600 members are in charge of operating the back-end systems that power the paper’s comprehensive digital operations,” The Guardian noted.

Fox News reports:

According to the Times, negotiations went late into Sunday and there were still disagreements over issues like a “just cause” provision that would prevent termination for reasons unrelated to misconduct, as well as pay raises and return-to-office policies. Times management told workers on Sunday it had offered a 2.5% annual wage hike, a 5% pay increase minimum for promotions and a $1,000 ratification bonus.

At a rally last week, one Guild staffer called on the company to stop “dragging its feet” on a contract and guaranteed a strike if it didn’t get its “s–t together.” He also criticized the “myth” that popular apps and services fix themselves without humans behind the scenes.

“Our work that all of us in the Tech Guild do is as human and as directly powered by our labor as the work of our co-workers in the newsroom,” he said.

There are reports that the site’s famous “Election Needle” showing the likelihood of Trump or Harris winning could be imperiled; tech workers also work to make sure the Times’ apps, push alerts and other digital mechanisms work smoothly.

The negotiations have gotten ugly at times; the Tech Guild posted on X on Oct. 30, “One of the most offensive things we’ve seen from @nytimes during this contract fight is managers trying to discourage our members from striking and even providing a secret way to scab during a strike by feeding code to a contractor remotely. Union busting is disgusting!”


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