The New York Times reporters stage first mass strike in 40 years

Today, December 8, the majority of journalists and other employees of The New York Times – 1.1 thousand of the approximately 1.8 thousand working in the publication – carry out one day strike. It began at midnight Thursday New York time and will last 24 hours. The strike is due to the newspaper’s trade union, The New York Times Guild, being unable to reach an agreement with the company’s management, which the union says is dragging out negotiations.

The trade union of journalists concludes an agreement with the company, which stipulates the working conditions of employees. The term of the last agreement expired in March 2021 – since then, about 40 rounds of negotiations have passed, but the parties have not been able to agree on a new agreement. Among the points of disagreement are the salaries of employees, the conditions of medical insurance, pension payments, etc. Thus, the union demands a salary increase of 10% after the conclusion of the agreement, and then by 5.5% in 2023 and 2024, the company’s management proposes an increase of 5, respectively, 5% and 3%.

“Their salary offerings continue to be out of date, well behind both inflation and average U.S. wage growth,” the union said. NYT Editor-in-Chief Joe Kahn said he was disappointed with the union’s decision to go on strike, as it is usually resorted to when negotiations are at an impasse, in which case the parties continue to “exchange proposals and move towards an agreement.”

This is the first strike by NYT employees since 1981. In total, The New York Times Guild represents about 1,450 employees of the publication.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya