NYT tech workers to walk out in protest of return-to-office policies

Axios ^ | October 30, 2023 | Sara Fischer

[DoodleBob]

Tech workers at the New York Times plan to walk out Monday afternoon to protest the company's return-to-office policy.

Why it matters: The Times' Tech Guild, which represents more than 600 staffers, is trying to negotiate its first contract with management after voting to unionize in March 2022.

Catch up quick: The guild has argued that new remote-work policies violate the terms and conditions set when their union was ratified in 2022.

• A Times spokesperson told Axios in August that the company's return-to-office policies were introduced before the Tech Guild was recognized.
• The New York Times Guild, which represents the majority of the Times' newsroom workers, joined the Times Tech Guild in sending cease-and-desist letters to management in August over the issue.

Details: The Tech Guild — which includes nearly 700 software engineers, data analysts, project managers, product managers and designers — will begin to walk out at 1 pm ET, according to a statement from the NewsGuild.

• They will hold a rally, followed by an afternoon of picketing around The Times' building.
• Remote workers will sign off at 1 pm to participate in a digital rally and picket via Zoom.
• A spokesperson for the NewsGuild said roughly 500 people are expected to participate, both in-person and through Zoom.

What they're saying: "The Times is now not only refusing to recognize our rights to bargain on return to office but is now going a step further and using it as a tactic to intimidate us," The Tech Guild's unit chair, Kathy Zhang, said in a statement.

• "This afternoon's work stoppage is to send The Times' senior leadership a strong, unmistakable message: We will not stand by and allow you to trample on our rights."

The other side: "We believe that allowing people the flexibility to work together in the office at times and remotely at other times benefits everyone by ensuring that we maintain the strong, collaborative environment that has come to define our culture and drive our success," a Times spokesperson told Axios in a statement.

• "We want to ensure that The Times remains an attractive destination for tech talent for years to come and are committed to working with the TechGuild to quickly reach a contract that we can all be proud of."

[DoodleBob]

Remote workers will sign off at 1 pm to participate in a digital rally and picket via Zoom.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

If I had an employee tell me that they aren't going to work on my terms, simple solution: hit the road, Jack. Don't you come back no more, no more.

[struggle]

Sadly though, once they walk out they get attacked by a homeless black man with a dildo

[Alberta's Child]

Same here, but sometimes that says more about the employer than the employee.

A guy in my industry got fired back in late 2020 — for refusing to stay home from work during the stupid COVID lockdowns. That guy is my hero.

[blackdog]

Buh-Bye.

[MinorityRepublican]

If I had an employee tell me that they aren't going to work on my terms, simple solution: hit the road, Jack. Don't you come back no more, no more.

Tomorrow they'll find a job with Google.

The economy is pretty strong even though inflation is pretty high. If you are a highly valued employee, you can get away with working from home or hybrid arrangement for now.

[Mean Daddy]

And considering the trend in newspapers is to layoff, this is a dangerous game. Lady I work with, her daughter and son in law both worked for a major newspaper and both were let go in the past two years.

[Dr. Sivana]

If I had an employee tell me that they aren't going to work on my terms, simple solution: hit the road, Jack. Don't you come back no more, no more.

If you don’t have enough talent lined up to replace them, or if you don’t want to spend more money for IT talent, that may not work out very well.

[BrexitBen]

They want to be able to remain in their studio Brooklyn apartments all day, play video games, read Facebook, watch Tik-Tok, and still draw a salary.

It’s the millennial virus.

[FlingWingFlyer]

That’s okay. Pedo Joe is importing millions of replacements who would love have a go to work job.

[grey_whiskers]

Can they both lose please?

[EEGator]

I’m not sure Venezuelan street criminals are good at tech jobs…

[JennysCool]

My mind is still kind of boggled by that simple statement that the Times employs nearly 700 tech workers.

I still fondly recall Elon Musk getting rid of Twitter's astonishing number of superfluous tech workers, who exclaimed, "Without us, you are doomed! Do you hear us, DOOMED!

He replaced them with a much leaner group of his resident geniuses and ... Everything went pretty smoothly.

[NWFree]

They were so enjoying the gravy train

[Dave911]

Exactly. We told our people in late 2020, come back to the office or find another job. Guess what, they all came back.

[Graybeard58]

Lady I work with, her daughter and son in law both worked for a major newspaper

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I once worked for a major newspaper, the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

I had a paper route when I was 10.

[matt04]

I was just gonna say the same thing. It’s not like they are dong anything ground breaking or different than every other major newspaper. Probably using some form of COTS software used by other newspapers for subscriptions, article management, etc. they can modify to fit their needs.

Sure you need some help desk staff, sysadmins, developers, etc. to keep things up to date and secure and make minor changes as needed. Probably could be done with say, half the current staff.

[T.B. Yoits]

"We told our people in late 2020, come back to the office or find another job. Guess what, they all came back."

They're not "your" people. You're only renting some of their time... unless you're running a cult, of course.

There is no "back to the office" for people who never worked in the office. We've hired from several states away. The outsiders are significantly more capable than the locals. If you were able to recall everyone back to the office, it means your company is less capable than your competitors who expanded their talent pool.

The companies I deal with that tried to force people back to the office got hit with two waves; one was the massive wave of workers that retired, leaving holes all over the place. Here we are a few years later and the holes are still opening wider than can be filled.

The other wave was that of people who realized just how productive they had become with all the right tools instead of dealing with the museum type of office.

[Singermom]

Fire them all.

[matt04]

Simple. After their Zoom rally, when they go to log in again, they can now wonder why it says “account disabled.”