Hundreds of tech workers for The New York Times are on strike on Election Day after walking off their jobs on Monday.
The New York Times Tech Guild has been threatening a strike if it did not have a new contract by Election Day, putting at risk the paper’s noted election coverage tools, such as its electoral map and its election needle.
“We are back out on the picket line today. We know this is a hard day to be on strike for our members but we want to be clear: We are here because of the decisions of @NYTimes management,” the guild said in a social media post on Tuesday morning.
ELECTION DAY STRIKE: We are back out on the picket line today. We know this is a hard day to be on strike for our members but we want to be clear: We are here because of the decisions of @NYTimes management. pic.twitter.com/K3ceJn4dHa
— New York Times Tech Guild (@NYTGuildTech) November 5, 2024
The guild represents more than 600 tech workers at The Times who work on games such as Wordle and The Crossword, as well as monitor many of the news organization’s audio options for its audience. It also supports the Times’ Cooking app.
“While we respect the union’s right to engage in protected actions, we’re disappointed that colleagues would strike at this time, which is both unnecessary and at odds with our mission,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said, according to The Washington Post.
Perhaps most immediately important, the strike risks the functionality of the Times’ election tools on the site’s busiest day of the year.
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“It’s our peak traffic, when we see the most people coming to The New York Times is during a presidential election, so that’s why months ago we gave management a deadline saying we wanted a contract by the election or we’re going on strike,” Times software engineer Sarah Duncan told Fox News. “They wouldn’t give us what we were demanding, so we’ve already made enough compromises. We’re done compromising, so we’re out here until we get a fair contract.”
The Times tech union is negotiating a contract for the first time since it was formed in 2022. Union leadership has three central demands that company executives have not met. First, the union wants just-cause job protections that ensure its members cannot be fired without reason. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement on what that process looks like, though Times management has said it supports the principle.
Second, the union seeks contractual assurances that the Times will not change its current hybrid work policies that allow significant time outside the office.
Third, the union demands that Times leadership fix pay equity and pay fairness shortcomings across the company, as revealed in a union study of pay disparities for women and minorities.