In September, the New York Times Tech Guild authorized a strike against the paper. “We are sending Times management a strong message with our vote today,” said Kathy Zhang, a Senior Analytics Manager at the paper. “Our work produces incredible value in this company. Our members have earned a fair contract and we’re ready to do whatever it takes to make sure we get it.” The guild, which represents some 6,000 workers, many of whom serve as data analysts, software engineers, and other IT professionals who support the paper’s digital operations, sought to use the strike as a means of driving the paper’s management to the bargaining table for a fair and equitable contract.
The strike commenced on November 4th. During the effort, workers marched with signs outside the paper’s headquarters in New York, while the Guild asked readers not to cross the “digital picket line” —meaning that they refrain from interacting with any of the paper’s online products (like its host of mobile games) that Guild members are responsible for maintaining.
Now, however, after only about a week, the Guild members have decided to halt their strike. They don’t have a new contract, and it’s not clear what was accomplished other than effecting a limited disruption to the paper’s news coverage.
The action was criticized for its timing, which coincided with the final hours of the U.S. presidential election, thus impacting the newspaper’s ability to cover the race’s conclusion. While this was meant as a bargaining tactic designed to draw the paper’s executives to the table, that tactic doesn’t appear to have worked very well.
Not all of the Guild members were on the same page, as Business Insider reported that “dozens” of the union members crossed the picket line. Citing sources familiar with the strike, BI writes that “about 100 of the Guild’s 600 members” actually ended up working on Election Day. Ultimately, the paper was still able to deploy its well-known election night “needle,” which forecasts the winner of the presidential race, and is made possible by the work of the paper’s tech workers.
Gizmodo reached out to the Tech Guild for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Inbox: After a weeklong work stoppage coinciding with the election, unionized New York Times tech staff are ending their strike. The Guild said it does not have a contract yet. pic.twitter.com/TQbeuscw3b
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) November 11, 2024
Business Insider writes that other employees at the Times aren’t necessarily super sympathetic to the Tech Guild’s cause. BI writes that “some Times journalists (who are represented by a different unit of the same News Guild of New York)” have “previously expressed to BI a lack of sympathy for the tech workers, given their relatively high salaries and potential for the strike to impact the outlet’s core journalism mission.”
