Workers at The New York Times marched on picket lines along 8th Avenue on Thursday, Dec. 8.
Members of The New York Times Guild—part of the NewsGuild, the national union of media professionals (which also has a unit at the Amsterdam News)—conducted a 1-day work stoppage and rallied in front of the newspaper’s offices to show their determination to urge management to come to a labor agreement with union representatives.
“I love my job, but we shouldn’t have to struggle financially to work at a place like The New York Times—no matter what positions we hold at the Times,” Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of “The 1619 Project” told fellow protestors. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Times staff writer said workers, including journalists, security guards, tech workers, shouldn’t have to stage walkouts just to get a liveable wage in New York City.
NewsGuild has been negotiating with Times management for two years now, trying to come to an agreement regarding salary wages, health care and retirement benefits for the papers’ security guards, tech workers, concierges and journalists.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander joined the rally and encouraged protestors by congratulating them on insisting on having diversity, inclusion and equity as non-negotiable union and workforce issues that must be included in a new labor agreement. “Investors, shareholders and customers don’t want a company that refuses” these issues, he warned.
“It’s not just at The New York Times that you’re fighting. We can build an economy where workers are respected and paid what they are owed. We can build an economy where diversity, equity and inclusion aren’t just buzzwords, but where they’re a fundamental part of the companies and the workplaces that we are building. And we can build that all throughout the economy. And you know what? That will be really fantastic for customers. That will be really rewarding for investors and shareholders for those nurses and firefighters who depend on growing value of just like the kind that you create. So I again want to say thank you because the 1,100 of you that signed and all of you are out here today, you’re not only out here for your own contract and for your own job, you are out here building a sector and building an economy that works for all of us.”
An article published in the Times which covered the one-day protest stated that “Compensation remains the most contentious aspect of the negotiations. The Times has offered union members a 5.5% raise upon ratification of the contract, 3% raises in 2023 and 2024, and a 4% retroactive bonus to compensate for a lack of raises since the contract expired. The union has proposed a 10% raise upon ratification, 5.5% raises in 2023 and 2024, and an 8.5% retroactive bonus.” Joe Kahn, the executive editor of The New York Times, was seemingly dismayed by the walkout, deeming it unnecessary since management and NewsGuild are still at the bargaining table and still trying to come up with an agreement.
Bill Baker, NewsGuild’s unit chair at The New York Times, called it a bittersweet day. “We’ve been negotiating with Times management for 20 months,” he reminded the picketers. “We are here because we told them that if they did not have a deal by December 8th that we would be here. And here we are!”