For Immediate Release: Nov. 11, 2024. Contact: Jen Sheehan, jen@nyguild.org, 610-573-0740. New York Times Tech Guild: ‘We showed our strength and our value to The Times.’ Workers who power all NYT technology — including mobile push alerts, app & website maintenance and the popular games — end Election Week ULP strike. ‘Now we'll bring our fight inside as we return to work.’ New York — The Times Tech Guild — the union that makes the coverage at The New York Times accessible to the world — has wrapped up an Election Week ULP Strike, having shown Times management the impact of their solidarity and unity. Tech Guild members will return to work Tuesday and march into the office together in the morning as a symbol of what's to come for The Times. “Our Election Week ULP Strike was a warning to The Times,” said Kathy Zhang, Tech Guild unit chair and a senior analytics manager at The New York Times. “We clearly demonstrated how valuable our work is to The New York Times, especially on election night, and showed that we have the full support of subscribers and allies across the country going forward.” Tech Guild members are advising supporters they can resume playing New York Times games as well as use the Cooking app. Instead of bargaining with the Tech Guild, Times’ executives stubbornly put a critically important Election Day at risk. The New York Times earned a notorious distinction on Election Day, as it was the site of the first NewsGuild-CWA strike coinciding with a presidential election in 60 years. A quick look at some of the impact the Tech Guild had on Election Night coverage through their ULP Strike: No state-level or non-presidential needles were live on election night. iOS news was not displaying ads intermittently, a significant loss of revenue for the company. The apps and website were slow to load. Publishing issues produced intermittent and visible error messages for readers on articles and updates.
Times subscribers received hundreds of thousands of emails with broken links. “The systems and digital products that worked over the election did so thanks to the hundreds of unit members who worked for months preparing everything to run smoothly,” Zhang said. “What broke down during this strike broke because our members weren't at work.” Subscribers across the country showed Tech Guild solidarity by boycotting the Cooking app as well as NYT games such as Wordle and Connections. Tech Guild members even created their own games site, akin to a strike publication, that earned more than a half million page views and more than 320,000 active users. “Times management — in particular CEO Meredith Kopit Levien and Chief Technology Officer Jason Sobel — made the conscious decision to put Times journalism at risk on election night rather than come to the bargaining table and work with us to get this contract completed,” said Anthony Napoli, NewsGuild of NY treasurer. “Our members will continue the fight until a fair contract is secured. We will accept nothing less.” About the NewsGuild of New York: The NewsGuild of New York, Local 31003 of the Communications Workers of America, is a labor union representing nearly 6,000 media professionals and other employees at New York area news organizations, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Thomson Reuters, The Nation, TIME, PEOPLE, Wirecutter, and The Daily Beast. The NewsGuild of New York advocates for journalists to have a voice in the newsroom, for press freedom, for inclusive and diverse workplaces, and for just cause, no exceptions, for all media professionals.
A WARNING TO THE TIMES: Tuesday, we will be returning to work, after a successful Election Week ULP Strike. We clearly demonstrated how valuable our work is to @nytimes.com. And now we’ll move our fight inside.
#GuildBuilds #SolidarityStreak #BreakMyStreak #UnionStrong #UnionMadeNYC #Strike
