Furious tech workers at the New York Times are threatening to strike on Election Day unless bosses meet their lengthy list of outlandish demands.
Requests from the union members include a four-day work week for increased pay, unlimited sick leave and paid time off for pet bereavements, Semafor reports.
Employees are also demanding trigger warnings around discussions of the news, banning scented products in break rooms and well as job security for foreign employees on visas in the event of layoffs.
Last week the Times Tech Guild’s vote to authorize the strike passed with 95 percent approval. Around half the union’s members cover election critical programs.
The union, which represents around 600 tech staff at the Times, said the timing of the strike is ‘no accident’ and is designed to inflict maximum disruption.
Tech union workers at the New York Times are threatening to strike on election day unless bosses meet their lengthy list of demands
The dispute has been rumbling on for the last two years, with the NYT asserting that some of the guild’s more than 60 proposals in that time could violate employment laws.
The average union member earns $190,000 a year including salary, bonuses and restricted stock options.
The NYT stated the demands would cost the paper more than $100 million over the proposed three-year contract.
Danielle Rhoads Ha, a spokeswoman for the outlet told DailyMail.com that many of the demands are atypical from collective bargaining agreements.
‘Since July 2022, bargaining has been focusing on a broad range of non-economic proposals from the TechGuild such as pet bereavement leave, unscented cleaning products, and banning machine learning among many other topics that are typically not part of collective bargaining agreements,’ She said.
‘The TechGuild recently submitted their economic proposals. We look forward to working with the group to reach a fair contract, that takes into account that they are already among the highest paid in the Company and journalism is our top priority.’
The average salary of an NYT tech worker is around $40,000 more than their editorial colleagues, according to the outlet.
The Times Tech Guild, headed up by chair Kathy Zhang, is demanding a four day work week, unlimited sick leave and job security in the face of AI developments among other things
The company also highlighted several benefits already in place including surrogacy and fertility funding, cab fare home and wellness programs.
But union members say they are still underpaid by industry standards.
‘Times management likes to compare the journalists to the Tech Guild only when it suits them,’ a Tech Guild spokesperson told Semafor.
‘In terms of salaries, wages vary widely across both unions but we are happy to discuss executive compensation relative to workers at the Times.’
The spokesman added the union is seeking assurances that workers will be protected from the incursion from AI and machine learning.
The Guild also wants negotiations to focus on rectifying the gender pay gap, as well as disparities between white and non-white employees.
However, the NYT asserts that the company has found ‘no evidence of discrimination’ following a large-scale audit.
The guild told Semafor that it wants the collective bargaining agreement to rectify pay disparities between white employees and non-white employees as well as between men and women.
Bosses at the outlet say their demands are too outlandish and may even violate employment law
Rhoades Ha disputed the guild’s assertion, saying that the company did a large-scale analysis and found ‘no evidence of discrimination.’
‘The Tech Guild leadership’s claims about gender and racial pay differences are connected to their methodology, which doesn’t compare the pay of employees performing similar work,’ Rhoades Ha said.
She also said that proposals from the union to ‘decline work based on advertisers’ and the ‘right to request letters to the editor not be published’ should not be part of the collective bargaining agreement.
The paper is reportedly concerned that the union, largely composed of software engineers, is attempting to exert editorial control.
DailyMail.com has contacted the New York Times Tech Guild for comment.
