The New York Times Tech Guild ended its unfair labor practices strike earlier this week after a large percentage of the establishment’s 600-member unit went on strike before election day.
A statement drafted by the union on Monday noted that the sparring factions have yet to reach an agreement and that the work stoppage is intended as a ‘warning’ to the periodical’s management team.
The Strike and What It Means for the Workers
The Tech Guild strategically hit the picket lines during election coverage to disrupt the busy news cycle. This followed intense negotiations with the publication’s management, which failed to result in a new deal.
That said, the strike did not significantly negatively influence the paper’s election coverage. For example, the publication’s election forecast needle, which relies on computer systems maintained by some striking workers, ran smoothly on election night. The paper’s chief political analyst, Nate Cohn, expressed concern that the strike might impact the needle’s functionality.
According to sources close to Guild members, many tech workers continued working during the strike. Benjamin Harnett, a principal software engineer who works as a shop steward for the Tech Guild, believes some of his co-workers chose such action because they felt intimidated by management.
“Our mission is to bring them along with us and I believe that many will join us in the actions we will continue to take to force the company to a contract,” Harnett said via text message.
Tech Guild workers had planned to resume their professional duties on Tuesday.
The union said the strike limited the company’s ability to expand its forecasting models. Tech Guild officials wrote that the publication lacked state-level and non-presidential election forecast needles, that certain browsers were not displaying ads, apps and web pages loaded slowly, and subscribers received updates containing broken links.
“We clearly demonstrated how valuable our work is to the New York Times, especially on election night,” said Kathy Zhang, a senior analytics manager for the newspaper and Tech Guild unit chair.
The Times’s Response to the Matter
New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said that the famed paper’s election coverage was “the smoothest site performance ever” for an election period. She attributed that to the numerous months of preparation by unionized workers and others leading others preceding this news cycle.
Ha also claimed that the faulty links resulted from a third-party vendor and were remedied fast and that certain ads were deliberately disabled to expedite the page loading process.
“We look forward to continuing to work the tech Guild to reach a fair contract that takes into account that they are already among the highest paid individual contributors in the company and journalism is our top priority,” she said.
The Tech Guild Counters
The Guild encouraged subscribers not to cross the digital picket lines and boycott the paper’s online offerings, such as games and cooking apps. The striking workers designed individualized versions of the popular games produced by the publication. According to the union, these creations attracted north of 300,000 users.
While the strike progressed, picketing workers marched along the streets outside the publication’s Manhattan offices carrying signs containing phrases such as “Bruh, they don’t even pay enough for us to be on call,” and “fair contract now.”
Goran Svorcan-Merola, a software engineer on the Tech Guild’s bargaining committee, said the strike invigorated him and brought him and many of his co-workers together.
“We’re hopeful that when we do get back to the table, this will be something that management is thinking about as we continue bargaining,” he said.
