New York Times tech workers walk out for half-day

Unionized technology workers at The New York Times walked out on strike for the second half of the workday on Monday to call on the Gray Lady’s management to stop making unilateral changes to the company’s work-from-home policies and to bargain with the workers fairly and frequently. 

Nearly 700 tech employees at The Times joined the NewsGuild of New York, an affiliate of the Communication Workers of America, in March 2022 and the workers, who call themselves the Times Tech Guild, are the largest tech union in the country.  

The union has bargained with Times management only a few hours each month since that vote, Kathy Zhang, the Tech Guild’s unit chair, told The Chief during the walkout, and the newspaper has made changes to work-from-home policies during that period without consulting the union, the NewsGuild has alleged in a 2022 unfair labor practice charge. 

“The company continues to violate the law by forcing members back to the office without consulting us,” Zhang said. “This is not something you’d expect from a company that is, one, supposed to be bargaining with its unions and two, says they want to be the best place to work in media. How can you be the best place to work in media if you do not listen to the needs of your workers and don’t take working conditions into mind?” 

3rd unit to walk out

The Tech Guild is the third NewsGuild bargaining unit at the paper of record to walk out in the last three years. Workers at Wirecutter, The Times’ product recommendation service, struck for four days in 2021 before reaching a deal on a first contract following more than two years of negotiations. And in December, more than 1000 unionized reporters, editors, designers, salespeople and security guards at the Times walked out for 24 hours to protest sluggish bargaining. Those workers secured a contract deal in May, more than two years after the previous contract expired.  

"This company continues to fail to meet its bargaining obligations with the three NewsGuild unions that are in place,” said Zhang.  

The Tech Guild’s bargaining unit includes analysts, software engineers, product designers, data managers and other positions that work on a variety of Times’ products. At least 500 employees participated in the walkout on Friday either by joining the in-person picket line in front of the Times’ office or virtually, the NewsGuild said. 

Susan DeCarava, president of the New York NewsGuild, told The Chief that the unilateral changes The Times has made were “disrespectful” to its employees, and argued that if the paper made changes to that policy without consulting the union, it could try to change other policies unilaterally as well. 

"We believe that allowing people the flexibility to work together in the office at times and remotely at other times benefits everyone by ensuring that we maintain the strong, collaborative environment that has come to define our culture and drive our success,” Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for The Times, said in a statement. “We want to ensure that The Times remains an attractive destination for tech talent for years to come and are committed to working with the Tech Guild to quickly reach a contract that we can all be proud of." 

Rhoades Ha denied that The Times has made unilateral changes to return-to-office policies without consenting the union, the NewsGuild’s central claim in their unfair labor practice charge, arguing that the newspaper announced those changes before the union was formally recognized.  

“The National Labor Relations Board has not ruled against our approach,” the statement continues. “The board has indicated that it intends to hold a hearing to review the Tech Guild’s charge. There has been no hearing or decision in this matter.” 

DeCarava warned during the picket that more labor actions could be on the horizon if Times management doesn’t bargain directly with the union over working conditions and respond fairly to the more than 50 proposals the union has put forth.  

“They have to decide that they're going to treat us fairly and engage with us in good faith bargaining, and until they do, this is going to keep happening and it's going to keep getting bigger and bigger, it's going to go longer and it's going to have a greater impact on business,” she said. “Everything’s on the table right now.” 

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com

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