New York Times tech workers threaten strike on Election Day – Mother Jones

Unionized New York Times tech workers are threatening to go on strike if they don’t reach a contract agreement with management.Guerin Charles/Abaca/ZUMA

Happy two days before election day, New York Times is facing a potential crisis: the army of tech workers who keep digital platforms running is threatening to go on strike.

About 700 members newspapers Tech Guild– who represents the workers who operate the famous selective needlemobile push notifications, Wordle, audio app and more – voted to authorize a strike in September. Now, just days away from an election in which the candidates look locked in a drawWorkers say a strike could take place unless they reach an agreement with management, who they claim has “demonstrated an unwillingness at the bargaining table to be reasonable about key contract requirements.” They say they have been trading for more than two years.

“We have made it clear that we need to reach an agreement before the election to prevent a strike,” the guild said. wrote in a letter to management dated November 1.

Among the requirements of the Technoguild: just a reason to quit without exception, higher wages and more initiatives to promote diversity, equality and inclusion among their workforce.

Time Management, for its part, argues that the workers, mostly engineers, are already among the highest paid in the company, with an average salary of $190,000, $40,000 more than journalists at the Times Guild, the newspaper’s media union. . Their other requests, Semaphore reported in September, include a four-day workweek and annual bonuses for poor performance. Tech Guild speaks women members and people of color are paid less than men and whites; Time Management counters that the methodology behind these comparisons is “misleading” because it does not compare people in comparable positions, and that a pay analysis conducted last year “found no evidence of discrimination.”

Daniel Rhodes Ha, senior vice president of external communications for the company TimeThis is stated in a statement provided by Mother Jones: “The date of the election is arbitrary and is a decision made unilaterally by the leadership of the Technical Guild. While we respect a union’s right to engage in protected activities, the threat of a strike at this time appears unnecessary and contrary to our mission.”

While the timing may be bad for the nation’s most influential newspaper, the Election Day deadline appears intended to remind management that its sense of journalistic excellence depends on the workers who provide it. Rhodes Ha, for example, said in a statement: “There is no publication that can match the depth of reporting and analysis of The Times.” Time has advertised its election needle, launched in 2016, as an accurate and early predictor of election outcomes; union members say without them it won’t work.

So could it be Time website going down on election day if hundreds of tech workers go on strike? It’s unclear. “We have robust plans that will allow us to fulfill our mission and serve our readers,” Rhodes Ha said. She refused to answer additional questions.