• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 4, 2024

The New York Times has been hit with a walkout one day before Election Day, which could potentially impact its coverage of that event. 

Tech Guild, whose members run the technology that supports election coverage at the Times, launched an Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) strike at 12:01 ET on Monday. 

The action drew a picket line with more than 400 people outside Times headquarters and 200 who participated remotely. They will march from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. 

Members of the Times Guild newspaper union have pledged not to do “struck” work. 

If it continues, this would be the first such Election Day action since the Detroit newspaper strike in 1964.  

But this is not the first recent walkout of this type. In October, Condé Nast agreed to a tentative three-year contract with the New Yorker Union just 11 days ahead of the magazine’s New Yorker Festival. And in May, Condé Nast avoided a threatened disruption of Vogue’s Met Gala when it reached a last-minute agreement.

The union is asking readers to avoid crossing the “digital picket line” and not play popular NYT Games like Wordle and Connections or use the NYT Cooking app.

“Our union members and bargaining committee have done everything possible to avoid this ULP strike,” says Kathy Zhang, a senior analytics manager at The New York Times and unit chair of the Tech Guild. “But management is more willing to risk our election coverage than they are to agree to a fair deal with its workers.”

The tech workers, who drive mobile push alerts, app & website maintenance and the election needle, demand remote/hybrid work security “just cause” job protections, which the newsroom union has had for decades; limits on subcontracting; and pay equity.

The response from the Times? “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,” says Danielle Rhoades Ha, Times spokesperson, according to The Washington Post. 

We’ll see if this gets settled before the results are in tonight.