New York Times tech workers walk off the job before Election Day – Poynter

As Election Day approaches and newsrooms prepare for days of nonstop coverage, unionized workers at The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun are using the busy period and additional readers to highlight workplace concerns.

Tech workers at The New York Times walked off the job early Monday morning and will continue to strike until they reach a contract agreement with the company, a process that could stretch through Election Day and its aftermath. The Times Tech Guild’s approximately 650 members include engineers, project and product managers, data analysts and designers whose work supports the Times’ digital operations including its website, apps and “election needle.” Roughly 95% voted to authorize a strike in September.

Meanwhile, in Baltimore, more than 30 journalists at the Baltimore Sun Guild are participating in a weeklong byline strike that started Sunday. Stories penned by these reporters will be attributed to “Baltimore Sun Staff” to signal to readers that staff are displeased with the paper’s management.

The Times Tech Guild has been threatening to strike for months, alleging that the company has engaged in unfair labor practices and refuses to agree to a “fair” contract for workers. The guild, which formed in 2022 as one of the largest tech unions in the country, has been negotiating a first contract for more than two years.

“We are demonstrating our labor power by doing this, and it is a moment during which our labor is very visible,” said senior software engineer and union shop steward Kait Hoehne. “We are working around the clock to keep the site up, to keep all of our services running. So this was our best chance to make it very clear what our contributions to the company are and why we matter and why we deserve a fair contract.”

Current points of contention at the bargaining table include “just cause,” a stipulation that prevents companies from disciplining or firing an employee without proper justification; remote work policies; and wages.

The union will continue to bargain with the company Monday but is prepared to keep striking on Election Day if the two sides do not reach an agreement. If that happens, it will be the first work stoppage at the NewsGuild — the Tech Guild’s parent union — to coincide with a presidential election since workers at The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press went on strike in 1964.

Roughly half of the Times Tech Guild works on programs “critical” to election coverage, according to the union. During the election period, tech workers keep the Times’ site and apps running and are around to troubleshoot any issues, Hoehne said. They also run Times offerings that readers use to relax and avoid election news, like its games and cooking verticals.

“Everything that users interact with in a digital facet — that is code that we write and maintain,” Hoehne said.

The Times Tech Guild is calling on readers to boycott Games and Cooking for the duration of the strike. Members of the Times Guild, which represents the paper’s journalists and business staff, have pledged not to do the work of striking tech employees.

Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha wrote in an emailed statement that the company looks forward to working with the guild to reach a fair contract and that it will continue serving readers through the strike.

“We’re in one of the most consequential periods of coverage for our readers and have robust plans in place to ensure that we are able to fulfill our mission and serve our readers,” Rhoades Ha wrote. “While we respect 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.”

The Baltimore Sun Guild, another NewsGuild unit, is also in the midst of contract negotiations — their first since 2007. (The union and company have previously agreed to contract extensions that made minimal changes.) The guild alleges that the Sun has pushed proposals designed to weaken the union’s powers and strip workers of “fundamental” protections. One such proposal would stop the automatic collection of union dues from paychecks, giving that responsibility to the guild, bargaining committee member Hannah Gaskill said. Other proposals the union has taken issue with touch on issues like seniority protections during layoffs and just cause.

The union is also protesting the cascading changes that have hit the newsroom in recent months. The Sun, which was acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group chairman and conservative political advocate David Smith in January, has been republishing stories from Sinclair outlets since the summer. The union has criticized some of these stories as not meeting the Sun’s editorial standards, and one journalist, federal courts reporter Madeleine O’Neill, was fired after she brought up her concerns with news coverage in an internal Slack channel.

The Sun did not respond to a request for comment. Its leadership has previously defended the decision to republish stories from Sinclair and other conservative outlets, stating that editors ensure that all content that appears on the Sun’s platforms meets the newsroom’s standards.

The newsroom has lost more than 10 reporters, including O’Neill, in recent months, said Gaskill, who covers state government and politics and is pulling her byline. Staffing changes have left the remaining reporters “burnt out” and confused, she said. Last week, the newsroom dissolved its features department, reassigning the editor and three reporters on the team to different desks.

“It feels like we wake up every day and we finally feel like we have our footing, and then management pulls the rug from underneath us again,” said Gaskill. “There’s a lack of consistency. It’s chaotic. It’s confusing. It’s frustrating.”

All of the Sun’s unionized journalists, except for new hires who are still on their nine-month probationary periods, are participating in the byline strike, Sun environment reporter and unit chair Christine Condon said. Union staff made the recommendation that new hires not pull their bylines after O’Neill was fired during her own probationary period.

Dining reporter Amanda Yeager said she is participating both to support her fellow workers and to protest the changes to features, her former desk. Yeager said that while she will still be able to cover food, her stories will take on a more business-focused, harder news angle. The features department’s dissolution sent the message that the company is no longer interested in the deeply reported, human interest stories that had been a staple of the desk, she said.

“There’s a lot that’s positive that’s happening in Baltimore, and I think that those kinds of pieces — features pieces — do a really good job of reflecting that,” Yeager said. “They’re also really important in terms of building sources and relationships within the community. … Readers look forward to those kinds of stories.”

The NewsGuild has made work stoppages and visible labor actions a key part of its strategy in recent years. The SCNG Guild, which represents journalists at Alden Global Capital’s 11 Southern California News Group papers, had also threatened to strike Monday but called the work stoppage off last week when it reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with the company.