‘Don’t play Wordle’, striking workers urge puzzle fans

‘Don’t play Wordle’ is the plea from striking New York Times workers who are complaining about what they say are unfair labour practices.

The New York Times Tech Guild, which works on things like election content and recipes alongside the newspaper and website’s popular array of puzzles, began industrial action earlier this week.

The union said it gave management “months of notice” but that ultimately, “the company has decided that our members aren’t worth enough to agree to a fair contract and stop committing unfair labour practices”.

This meant that they walked out the day before the 5 November US presidential election, a huge day for data visualisations.

However, perhaps the biggest impact has been that they are asking people not to play games like Wordle and Connections while they are on strike.

On 4 November, the guild posted on X: “We ask that you not cross our digital picket line by playing any of the NYT Games… as well as not using the cooking app.”

The union has launched a “strike-friendly” website with games and recipes for readers.

The guild comprises more than 600 tech workers, such as software engineers and data analysts, who “build and maintain the critical infrastructure behind The New York Times”, according to the guild’s website.

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New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said in a statement on Monday that while the company respects “the union’s right to engage in protected actions, we’re disappointed that colleagues would strike at this time, which is both unnecessary and at odds with our mission”.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the Tech Guild to reach a fair contract that takes into account that they are already among the highest paid individual contributors in the company and journalism is our top priority,” Ms Rhoades Ha said.

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The New York Times said it has “robust plans in place to ensure that we are able to fulfil our mission and serve our readers”.