NYT journalists have been without a contract since March 2021. (File)
Hundreds of employees of the New York Times Co. is working from home this week to defy the company’s efforts to return to its new office.
More than 1,200 people, mostly journalists and tech workers represented by New York’s NewsGuild, have pledged not to return to the office on Monday in an attempt to get the Times to negotiate RTO plans. , according to the union.
“Health and safety policies are part of contract negotiations and they have to be negotiated over,” Times software engineer Carrie Price said in an interview Monday. “Taking responsibility for our personal risk assessment is important to our membership… Was asked to give up my ability to control my own personal safety for myself and my loved ones, is something we don’t want and it’s not done yet.”
Journalists have not had a contract since March 2021, and employees have not received a raise for more than two years despite decades of high inflation and rising rents. Meanwhile, they say the company has performed exceptionally well in recent years and executives are making millions of dollars a year.
Employees say this week’s protest comes after months of stalled contract negotiations. In June, when Joseph Kahn became the newspaper’s executive editor, union organizers wrote a letter with nearly 900 signatures calling for a new contract. Two weeks ago, after seeing no progress, more than 300 employees, many of them paid significantly less than some of the Times’ star reporters, wrote personal emails to senior leadership. describe how they have struggled to keep up with rising costs. of life.
On Monday, the Times offered branded lunch boxes to welcome employees back to the office.
This is the lunch box. It is cute! But me and my colleagues don’t need cute knick-knacks. 330 of us wrote an email last month asking for an increase in reality to combat inflation. We have RTO and DEI proposals on the table. What we need is a contract. Let’s haggle, @New York Times. pic.twitter.com/0M3ZtawiDl
– andrea is ready for a fair deal for all (@zagatam) September 12, 2022
Andrea Zagata, a senior editor, said in an interview: “I imagine that whoever decides to make a lunchbox means it’s really good, but I think for us the pros This small treat is not enough. “Honestly, we want a raise, or a contract.”
Company spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said: “We presented to NewsGuild a proposal for a contract salary increase of 10% for the remaining two and a half years of the new contract. “That number is significantly higher than recent Times Guild contracts.”
This isn’t the first time the company has tried to get workers back to their desks. The deadline to return to the office was set for June, although employees protested the move on Twitter and it was later pushed back.
Public clashes with union workers are also not new to the Times. In August 2021, hundreds of tech workers staged a march to protest unfair labor practices and allegations of union vandalism, then won the election to become a member. founded one of the largest tech workers unions in the US. Wirecutter journalists staged a Black Friday strike last November and then reached a contractual agreement the following month.
The heightened tension at the Times reverberated through other offices across the country. Apple Inc., among other companies, has chosen Labor Day as the new time for workers to return to their desks. The tech giant has pushed back the RTO’s launch date several times in the face of mounting anger from employees unhappy with the policy. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are easing some of their Covid policies to bring more workers back to the office.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a collaborative feed.)
