The New York Times union stated Friday that more than 1,000 members, including hundreds of newsroom employees, will leave the job if the firm does not agree to the provisions of a new contract by December 8.
This is important since the parties involved have been at logger for over a year and a half on various problems, salary increases in particular. These tensions have reached a boiling point as the holiday season approaches.
After 20 months of negotiations, enough is enough: Today, more than 1,000 @NYTimesGuild members pledged to walk out if @nytimes does not agree to a complete and fair contract by Dec. 8.
— NYTimesGuild (@NYTimesGuild) December 2, 2022
Angry Union Tells NYT Bosses To Shove It
In a letter delivered to management on Friday, the NewsGuild of New York reaffirmed its requests and expressed anger about the protracted negotiations.
The letter noted that they had exchanged and modified dozens of ideas over the course of more than 120 hours and 40 negotiation sessions.
It stated that they listened attentively to management’s opinions and concerns and made many adjustments to accommodate them.
In exchange, employees have been lectured about the firm’s bleak economic future, even as the company portrays itself to Wall Street as a flourishing enterprise that can afford to pay its top executives millions of dollars in salary and perks.
What Do They Want?
The letter written to the publisher of the New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, and the company’s president, Meredith Kopit Levien.
It included significant requests, including a new increase structure, maintaining pension plan regulations, and modifying performance reviews.
The union has long argued that the Times’ leadership has refused to bring reasonable salary rise ideas to the table, even though the Times is now doing financially better than it has for many years and continues to grow dividends for shareholders.
In 2022, the @nytimes spent millions of dollars to purchase Wordle and The Athletic and allocated $150 million in stock buybacks to its investors. And yet it is still offering wage “increases” that amount to pay cuts during record-high inflation.
— NYTimesGuild (@NYTimesGuild) December 2, 2022
Friday’s letter represents upwards of 1,036 union workers represented by the guild. Each party has signed an agreement granting the guild’s negotiating committee the ability to “call for and arrange a 24-hour work stoppage” if no progress is made during negotiations.
The NYT Responds With ‘Dismay’
A spokesman for The New York Times stated in a release that while they are dismayed by the NewsGuild’s strike threat, they are prepared to guarantee that The Times serves its readers without interruption. They stated that they are dedicated to negotiating a deal with the NYT NewsGuild they can all be proud of.
The representative stated that their current pay proposal provides substantial increases. The majority of bargaining unit members would receive 50 percent or more in extra wages during the term of the new contract compared to what they would have earned had the old deal persisted.
In addition, their supporting medical and retirement programs provide Guild members with sustainable, best-in-class alternatives.
The latest contract between the guild and management was terminated in March 2021. Since then, the parties have met periodically to negotiate a new contract, but as the negotiations have dragged on, the tension has increased.
Not for the first time have unionized Times employees stormed out or planned to walk out.
In 2017, hundreds of employees protested the company’s intention to abolish its separate copy desk.
The group representing staff at the Times’ Wirecutter site for consumer evaluations staged a five-day strike in protest of management’s discussions with its union last year.
In recent months, shutdowns, strikes, and work stoppages have increased as editorial employees seek improved contracts in the aftermath of the epidemic.
This article appeared in NewsHouse and has been published here with permission.
