Technology workers at The New York Times went on strike Monday morning, just before Election Day, threatening to disrupt the newspaper’s coverage as the 2024 presidential race approaches.
The Times’ Tech Guild stopped work shortly after midnight, According to the Wall Street Journal,
The guild’s demands include employee safety, fair wages and remote work options.
According to the union, if the strike continues till tomorrow, it will coincide with presidential elections for the first time in 60 years.
“While we respect the union’s right to engage in protected actions, we are disappointed that colleagues would strike at this time, which is unnecessary and contrary to our mission,” a New York Times spokesperson told The Post in a statement. “
The Times Tech Guild did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The striking workers of the guild will hold daily protests outside the company headquarters from 9 am on Monday. told the New York Times,
The union voted on September 10 to authorize the strike.
According to the Journal, the union asked readers to “respect the digital picket line” and not play popular Times games like Wordle or use the Times’ cooking app.
“We have been sounding the alarm for several weeks and have approved our schedule to complete this contract before the election week deadline,” said Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild of New York. “We are disappointed that The Times is willing to gamble with its election coverage by avoiding agreeing to a fair and reasonable contract.”
Tech Guild has more than 600 members across company engineering, product, design, data and project management departments.
More than 400 of the guild’s members are engineers — raising concerns that the strike could disrupt critical Election Day coverage on the Times’ news site. Without its tech staff, the company may struggle to fix the bug revealed Tuesday and fail to update content in some of its election coverage tools.
A New York Times spokesperson told The Post, “We are at one of the most important times in coverage for our readers and we have strong plans to ensure we continue to fulfill our mission and serve our readers.” Are capable of.”
The Times Tech Guild has been negotiating a contract since voting to form a union in March 2022.
The union said it is fighting to include rapid improvements in artificial intelligence technology, pay equity for women and minority members and a “just cause” provision to protect workers in the face of full-time remote work options.
According to The New York Times, Times technical staff are some of the highest-paid employees at the company, earning an average annual salary of $190,000 – an average of $40,000 more than Times Guild journalists.
In an email to employees Sunday, Times management said it had offered the union a 2.5% annual pay increase, a minimum 5% pay increase for promotions and a $1,000 ratification bonus.
The Times said it will maintain its current hybrid requirements of two days of in-person work per week until June 2025.
The company also allows employees to work completely remotely for three weeks per year.
The New York Times told its tech guild that it agrees with the importance of “just cause” provisions, which prevent workers from being fired unless there is a sufficient reason, but that it believes “just cause” “The determination was management’s decision – not that of a third party. ,
The Times also challenged the guild’s claims about pay equality and race. The company told Tech Guild that the guild’s methodology compares average compensation among different identity groups, rather than comparing compensation between employees in similar roles.
In 2022, the Times’ newsroom union – which includes more than 1,000 employees – staged a one-day strikeThe union won a contract that included a base salary of $65,000 and a minimum raise of 10.6% for all employees.
