By admin 
As Election Day approaches and newsrooms prepare for days of nonstop reporting, union members at The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun are using the busy period and additional readers to highlight workplace concerns.
Tech workers at The New York Times quit their jobs early Monday morning and will continue to strike until they reach a contract agreement with the company, a process that could extend into Election Day and its aftermath. The Times Tech Guild’s approximately 650 members include engineers, project and product managers, data analysts and designers whose work powers the Times’ digital operations, including its website, apps and election needle. About 95% voted in favor of authorizing a strike in September.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, more than thirty journalists from the Baltimore Sun Guild are participating for a week byline strike that started on Sunday. Stories written by these reporters will be attributed to “Baltimore Sun Staff” to signal to readers that the staff is dissatisfied with the paper’s management.
The Times Tech Guild has been threatening to strike for months because the company is guilty of unfair labor practices and refuses to agree to a ‘fair’ contract for employees. The guild, which emerged in 2022 as one of the country’s largest technology unions, has been negotiating an initial contract for more than two years.
“By doing this we are demonstrating our labor power, and it is a moment where our labor is very visible,” said Kait Hoehne, senior software engineer and union manager. “We are working around the clock to keep the site up and running and all our services running. So this was our best opportunity to make it very clear what our contributions are to the company, why we matter and why we deserve a fair contract.”
Current points of contention at the bargaining table include “just cause,” a provision that prevents companies from disciplining or firing an employee without proper justification; remote work policies; and wages.
The union will continue to negotiate with the company on Monday, but is prepared to continue striking on election day if the two sides cannot reach an agreement. If that happens, it will be the first work stoppage at the NewsGuild — the Tech Guild’s parent union — to coincide with a presidential election since workers at The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press went on strike in 1964.
According to the union, about half of the Times Tech Guild works on programs “critical” to election coverage. During the election season, technical staff will ensure the Times site and apps remain active and will be ready to resolve any issues, Hoehne said. They also offer Times deals that readers use to relax and avoid election news, such as games and cooking verticals.
“Anything that users interact with in a digital facet, that’s code that we write and maintain,” Hoehne says.
The Times Tech Guild is calling on readers to boycott Games and Cooking for the duration of the strike. Members of the Times Guild, which represents the paper’s journalists and business staff, have pledged not to do the work of striking technology workers.
Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha wrote in an emailed statement that the company looks forward to working with the guild to reach a fair contract and will continue to serve readers during the strike.
“We are in one of the most transformative news periods for our readers and have robust plans to ensure we can fulfill our mission and serve our readers,” Rhoades Ha wrote. “While we respect the union’s right to engage in protected action, we are disappointed that colleagues would strike at this time, which is both unnecessary and inconsistent with our mission.”
The Baltimore Sun Guild, another NewsGuild unit, is also in the midst of contract negotiations — its first since 2007. (The union and company previously agreed to contract extensions that involved minimal changes.) The guild claims the Sun is proposing has pushed policies designed to weaken the union’s powers and strip workers of “basic” protections. One such proposal would end the automatic collection of union dues from paychecks and give that responsibility to the guild, said bargaining committee member Hannah Gaskill. Other proposals the union has submitted address issues such as seniority protection during layoffs and just cause.
The union is also protesting against the successive changes that have affected the editorial staff in recent months. The Sun, which was acquired in January by Sinclair Broadcast Group chairman and Conservative political advocate David Smith, has been republishing stories from Sinclair outlets since the summer. The union has criticized some of these stories as not meeting the Sun’s editorial standards, and one journalist, federal court reporter Madeleine O’Neill, was fired after raising her concerns about the messaging on an internal Slack channel.
The Sun did not respond to a request for comment. Its leadership has previously defended the decision to republish stories from Sinclair and other conservative media, saying editors ensure all content appearing on The Sun’s platforms meets newsroom standards.
The newsroom has lost more than a dozen reporters in recent months, including O’Neill, said Gaskill, who covers state government and politics and is rescinding her byline. Staff changes have left the remaining reporters “burned out” and confused, she said. Last week, the newsroom disbanded its content department, with the editor and three reporters on the team reassigned to different desks.
“It feels like every day we wake up and finally feel like we’re back on our feet, and then management pulls the rug out from under us again,” Gaskill said. “There is a lack of consistency. It’s chaotic. It’s confusing. It’s frustrating.”
All unionized Sun journalists, with the exception of new hires still on their nine-month probationary period, are taking part in the strike, Sun environmental reporter and unit president Christine Condon said. Union staff recommended that new hires not have their names requested after O’Neill was fired during her own probationary period.
Food reporter Amanda Yeager said she is running to support her colleagues and protest the changes in her former agency. Yeager said that while she can still cover food, her stories will take on a more business-oriented, hard-hitting news angle. The elimination of the features department sent the message that the company is no longer interested in the deeply reported, human interest stories that had been a staple of the agency until now, she said.
“There’s a lot of positive things happening in Baltimore, and I think pieces like this — signature pieces — really reflect that,” Yeager said. “They are also very important when it comes to building resources and relationships within the community. … Readers look forward to those kinds of stories.”
The NewsGuild has made work stoppages and labor actions visible an important part of his strategy in recent years. The SCNG Guild, which represents journalists at Alden Global Capital’s 11 Southern California News Group newspapers, had also threatened to strike Monday but called off the work stoppage last week when a point was reached. preliminary agreement about a new contract with the company.