New York Times technology staffers went on strike Monday morning just ahead of Election Day, threatening to disrupt the paper’s coverage as the 2024 presidential race comes to a close.
The Times’ tech guild walked off the job shortly after midnight, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The guild’s demands include worker protections, fair pay and remote work options.
If the strikes persists through tomorrow, it will the first to coincide with a presidential election in 60 years, according to the union.
“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,” a New York Times spokesperson told The Post in a statement.
The Times’ Tech Guild did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Striking staffers will protest daily outside the company’s headquarters starting on Monday at 9 a.m., the guild told The New York Times.
The union had voted on Sept. 10 to authorize the strike.
The union asked readers to “honor the digital picket line” and not play popular Times games like Wordle or use the Times’ cooking app, according to the Journal.
“We have been sounding the alarm for weeks and cleared our schedules to get this contract done before the election week deadline,” said Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild of New York. “We’re disheartened that the Times is willing to gamble with its election coverage to avoid agreeing to a fair and just contract.”
The Tech Guild has more than 600 members across the company’s engineering, product, design, data and project management departments.
More than 400 of the guild’s members are engineers – stoking concerns that the strike could disrupt important Election Day coverage across the Times’ news site. Without its tech staffers, the company could struggle to fix bugs it encounters on Tuesday and fail to update content across some of its specialized election coverage tools.
“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,” the New York Times spokesperson told The Post.
The Times Tech Guild has been negotiating for a contract since it voted to unionize in March 2022.
The union said it was fighting for the inclusion of a “just cause” provision to protect workers in the face of rapidly improving artificial intelligence technology, pay equity for women and minority members and full-time remote work options.
The Times’ tech workers are some of the highest-paid employees at the company, earning a yearly salary of $190,000 on average – $40,000 more on average than journalists in the Times Guild, according to The New York Times.
In an email to workers on Sunday, Times management said it had offered the union a 2.5% annual wage increase, a minimum 5% pay increase for promotions and a $1,000 ratification bonus.
The Times said it would maintain its current hybrid requirements of two days of in-person work per week through June 2025.
The company also allows employees to work fully remotely for three weeks per year.
The New York Times told its Tech Guild that it agrees on the importance of “just cause” provisions, which prevent workers from being fired unless there is sufficient reason, but believed it was management’s decision to determine “just cause” – not a third party’s.
The Times also challenged the guild’s claims about pay equity and race. The guild’s methodology compares the average compensation among different identity groups, instead of comparing compensation among employees in similar roles, the company told the Tech Guild.
In 2022, the Times’ newsroom union – which includes more than 1,000 staffers – staged a one-day strike. The union secured a contract that included a base salary of $65,000 and minimum raises of 10.6% for all staff.
