More Than 1000 NY Times Workers Walk Out After Times Management Walks Away from Table

After 20 months of negotiations, members of the New York Times Guild walked out yesterday due to the company’s failure to bargain in good faith and reach a fair contract agreement with the workers. The Times Guild bargaining committee had offered to stay at the table for as long as it took to reach a deal and avert the walk-out, but management walked away from the table a little before 7 PM ET Wednesday and refused to return, with five hours to go.

Members asked readers to stand with them on the digital picket line for the 24 hours starting at midnight Thursday, and their supporters on social media enthusiastically obliged. “Read local news. Listen to public radio. Make something from a cookbook. Break your Wordle streak,” members and supporters tweeted. Read more about the walkout in the Washington Post, CNN, AP News, amNY, Slate, and Salon.

Meanwhile, the company continues to run employee’s health funds at a loss. Management continues to refuse the $65K salary floor proposed by the Times Guild and their wage proposal still fails to meet the economic moment, lagging far behind both inflation and the average rate of wage gains in the U.S. Over the life of the contract, their offer now amounts to an annual raise of only 2.875 percent.

The last work stoppage of this scale was a multi-day Guild-initiated strike in September and October of 1965. There was a 88-day pressmen strike in 1978 and in 1981, the Guild struck for 6.5 hours.

The Times Guild held a public rally during the walkout outside of the New York Times office where speakers included Guild members like Nikole Hannah Jones, Tom Coffey, Jenny Vrentas, Stacy Cowley, and Bill Baker as well as elected officials and labor allies. Check out more photos and video of the rally and follow the union's Twitter feed for updates on the fight.