NYT Tech Guild reaches agreement with leadership after years of bargaining

The New York Times Tech Guild reached a tentative contract agreement with management Wednesday, a month after its election week strike. 

The NewsGuild of New York, which represents the Times Tech Guild, reached a deal on a three-year contract following the union’s week-long strike in November over unfair labor practices.

The three-year agreement is the first for the Times Tech Guild, which is a bargaining unit of The NewsGuild of New York and the largest union of tech workers with collective bargaining rights in the country, the union announced in a press release. 

“We’re thrilled to reach an agreement that secures ‘just cause’ protections, sustains workplace flexibility, and guarantees annual raises for our members,” Kathy Zhang, a Senior Analytics Manager at The New York Times and unit chair of the Tech Guild, said. “These first contract wins set a strong foundation for job protections that our colleagues will build upon for generations. I could not be more proud to have been part of organizing this strong, fighting union. Serving on our first bargaining committee has been the honor of a lifetime.”

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The union’s members returned to work in early November following the week-long election strike in which they failed to come to an agreement with management. 

The deal marks the end of more than two years of bargaining, which began shortly after the unit won its National Labor Relations Board election by a landslide in March 2022, solidifying their unionization. Software developers, project managers and graphic designers at The New York Times unionized alongside a wave of other tech workers at SEGA, Meow Wolf, NPR, Activision Blizzard and Alphabet, organizing as part of CODE-CWA, or the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees.

Goran Svorcan-Merola, a Times senior software engineer and member of the Tech Guild’s bargaining committee, told Fox News Digital that he is excited to finally be able to implement the protections they’ve been fighting for in recent years.

“We were able to really push leadership to give us what we’re worth,” he said. “In terms of attitudes towards management, I have to say, some of them, some of their positions have been unfortunate. But ultimately, we are looking to work with one another on this.”

“We hope to have a productive three years as we continue to fight for our members,” he added.

As part of the new contract, workers will get enhanced job security with “just cause” protections, guaranteed wage increases for the first time of up to 8.25%, prioritization of the largest wage increases for the lowest paid members over the life of the contract, additional compensation for on-call work, important protections that lock in guardrails on additional variable compensation, including stocks and bonuses, improved protections for workers on visas, language guaranteeing flexible hybrid work schedules, as well as transparency protections for career growth, performance reviews and other workplace issues, according to the press release. Tech Guild members will vote on ratification of their contract on Thursday, Dec. 19th. 

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During the strike, NYT subscribers across the country expressed solidarity with striking tech workers by opting to forego games operated by tech workers, including Wordle and Connections, or using the Cooking app. Instead, Tech Guild members created their own games site that amassed more than a half million page views and more than 320,000 active users, the union said in its press release. 

“With this contract our Tech Guild members demonstrate what happens when workers band together to fight for the value of their labor,” Susan DeCarava, President of The NewsGuild of New York said. “We not only won a first contract that set new standards for workers within the New York Times, but we’ve also established a strong foundation for what is possible for tech workers in the future when they organize and bargain collectively.”

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