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Technology workers at the New York Times on strike on November 4, 2024. (Photo: New York Times Tech Guild)
On Monday morning, a day before the US elections, hundreds of technology workers showed up New York Times launched a multi-day strike to fight for higher pay increases, better working conditions and to combat discriminatory performance management practices.
More than 600 software engineers, product managers, digital designers and other technical staff make up the core team that powers the New York Times‘ digital infrastructure – left his job on Monday and set up pickets outside the company’s headquarters.
The timing of the strike, which comes just one day before the crucial 2024 US election, underlines the important role these workers play in supporting the news giant’s digital reach. Organized by the New York Times Tech Guild, an affiliate of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the strike is one of the first major work stoppages by technology workers.
A statement from the Guild noted that workers are demanding “fair, equitable pay, job security and protected hybrid/remote working.” More than 95 percent of tech workers voted to authorize a strike. Management’s latest offer includes a 2.5 percent annual pay increase, a 5 percent pay increase for promotions and a $1,000 ratification bonus.
“Disrespect has reached a new low,” Sarah Duncan, a staff engineer, said on Twitter/X ahead of the strike. “NYT execs better come to their senses and negotiate as if their products depend on them since we are the ones who make and maintain them and we have authorized a strike!”
The strike has the potential to disrupt the economy Times‘ high-stakes news cycle coverage of the 2024 U.S. elections, including the presidential and congressional races, sharply highlighting the dependence of the newspaper’s most essential operations on its technical staff.
For readers of the Timesthe strike shuts down many digital tools that power the publication’s election coverage. The digital architecture, maintained by these tech workers, delivers real-time election results, interactive maps and deep data visualization that the media company is known for.
The technical staff also supports key software platforms on the Times, like the gaming apps like Word and the crossword puzzle, the cooking platform and the podcast and other apps.
The strike is all the more important given the role the government plays Timesthe so-called ‘newspaper of history’, as one of the central instruments of the ruling class’s propaganda for more than a century.
In recent decades the Times has played a key role in imperialist war propaganda – from the criminal invasion of Iraq to the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza and the US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine – and in the falsification of history, including discredited 1619 project.
A year full of frustrations that boiled over
The struggle of the technical workers at the New York Times is emblematic of a larger crisis engulfing the media and technology industries, as well as the broader job carnage taking place in the auto industry and other sectors. In all these industries, workers are bearing the brunt of management-driven cost cuts, which are reflected in stagnant wages, escalating workloads and job insecurity.
But workers are fighting back, including the courageous strike of more than 33,000 Boeing employees and other workers striking at defense and aerospace companies like Eaton.
Kait Hoehne, a Times web engineer, wrote last month on
She added, “The New York Times has been hugely successful in recent years, largely due to the hard work of our unit, but we are constantly pressured to produce as much as possible for as little as possible.”
Shares of the Times fell by more than 7.7 percent on Monday as a result of the strike, despite an increase in quarterly turnover of 7 percent, mainly thanks to digital activities and subscribers. Net profit rose by more than 20 percent to $64.1 million in the third quarter. The publication added more than 260,000 paying subscribers last quarter, with a total of more than 5 million paying subscribers across many of the major news, cooking, gaming and review platforms.
“We are being denied promotions and being fired for no reason,” Hoehne added. “The women and people of color in our unit experience pay disparities and unfair performance reviews. We can work as a unit to solve these problems. We deserve a fair deal, and we deserve it now.” One technical employee was fired and retaliated against days before brain surgery.
The technical workers of the Times have faced more than a year of stalled negotiations, with management reportedly using delaying tactics and other means to prevent them from reaching an agreement. The stalemate in negotiations has led to accusations from employees and supporters that media company executives are fundamentally unwilling to recognize the rights and contributions of their technical workforce, who play a vital role in providing the digital infrastructure that makes the media possible makes. Times operate.
In recent years, major tech and media companies have faced mass layoffs, with companies prioritizing profits and shareholder returns over workforce stability. More than 1,100 Times workers previously went on strike in 2022.
Despite making significant gains in 2023, the New York Times has resisted paying its technical workers wages that are in line with industry standards. The decision to strike speaks to a shared sense of anger among many workers, who see their contributions as essential but undervalued.
Technology workers have not limited their opposition to mass layoffs in recent years, but have also spoken out against the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza.
A Microsoft techie Hossan Nassr was recently fired for protesting the genocide and tech companies’ complicity in war and genocide. “I got fired from Microsoft,” Nassr said in one viral tweet“hours after a vigil we organized to honor and commemorate the lives of Palestinians killed by the American-funded, Microsoft-supported Israeli genocide.”
The role of the NewsGuild and the CWA
The NewsGuild represents approximately 3,000 media professionals in New York, including both editorial and technology staff Times. Despite his support for the efforts of the unions through the Guild, Times employees need to understand the role of the CWA union bureaucracy, given the CWA’s sellout of AT&T workers.
In the case of AT&T, CWA leadership pushed through a contract that many employees felt was inadequate and did not meet their core requirements. This betrayal shows that the CWA, and by extension the NewsGuild, cannot be trusted to support a genuine fight for the rights of technology workers. Times.
To fight for their demands and prevent a sellout, Times employees should form regular committees. Such committees would allow workers to control their struggles democratically, preventing union leaders from making concessions that do not meet their needs. This approach would place decision-making power in the hands of the workers themselves, allowing them to assess and direct their strategy without fear of compromise or betrayal orchestrated by the leadership, and turn to broader sections of the working class.
The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) has advocated the formation of rank-and-file committees to empower workers to take control of their struggles. With the Times Because management shows little willingness to address workers’ core demands, the formation of rank-and-file committees can serve as a powerful counterbalance, allowing workers to advance without interference or dilution of their demands.
Ultimately, this strike is more than a dispute over wages and working conditions. Workers at the Times must also come to terms with the publication’s role as a central propaganda organ for the current capitalist ruling class.
The outcome of this important tech worker strike will also resonate across the technology and media industries. This struggle and its implications extend beyond the US Times to technology and media workers around the world, but also to broad sections of the working class who bear the brunt of the ruling class’ attacks on their living standards and working conditions.
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