Bad timing for the New York Times as its tech union goes on strike

The New York Times today said it was “disappointed” as its tech union went on strike just one day before one of the most blustery U.S. presidential elections in recent history.

About 600 workers at the newspaper, which happens to have the biggest subscriber list of any American newspaper, are represented by the Times Tech Guild. These people are the developers and other tech workers who run the back-end systems of the newspaper, people who will surely be in demand during a frenetic period of election coverage.

The union warned of a walkout in September, when after a vote the tech staff said the walkout should come at a critical time – election week – if their demands weren’t met. Following what were reported to be “intense negotiations” the guild and management at the Times failed to come to an agreement on a new contract. The strikers are now asking readers to “honor the digital picket line” and forgo playing the popular Times game, Wordle, and not use the newspaper’s cooking app.

“We have been sounding the alarm for weeks and cleared our schedules to get this contract done before the election week deadline,” said Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild of New York. “We’re disheartened that the Times is willing to gamble with its election coverage to avoid agreeing to a fair and just contract.”

Management it seems was not impressed by some of the demands, which included job security for noncitizens on work visas, full-time remote work options, and perhaps surprisingly, mandatory trigger warnings during meetings. The workers are already a highly paid bunch, earning on average about $190,000, reportedly $40,000 more on average than journalists belonging to the Times Guild.

“While we respect the union’s right to engage in protected actions, threatening a strike at this time feels both unnecessary and at odds with our mission,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said over the weekend, adding that the newspaper has “robust plans in place to ensure that we are able to fulfill our mission and serve our readers” during the busy election period.

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