Labor disputes are popping up everywhere in Joe Biden’s America. Biden, the supposed friend of the working man, couldn’t resolve the rail strike without an act of Congress. Biden’s fiasco with the unions might be over, but some of his top allies, like the left-wing publication that calls itself The New York Times, don’t have an elected body to force workers to agree to the terms of management. Consequently, the liberal newspaper is bracing to see over 1,000 workers walk out today after last-minute bargaining collapsed (via Vanity Fair):
Inside The New York Times, the top brass is bracing for a walkout. Last Friday, the Times Guild, which represents about 1,450 employees, alerted management that they planned to stop work for a full 24 hours on Thursday, December 8, if they did not have a contract by then. “We are all operating under the assumption that we are walking out on Thursday,” sports reporter and unit member Kevin Draper told me.
The two sides are meeting again Tuesday, as planned, though management balked at the Guild’s request, in a letter to Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger and president and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, to enter additional marathon negotiating sessions over wages, health insurance and retirement benefits, and return-to-office policies. “We really were hoping that the response would be, let’s add more bargaining sessions and get as close as we can before Thursday and then see where we are,” said Andrea Zagata, a staff editor who helps produce the print edition of the Times. “Instead the response that we got was well, I guess we’ll see you on Tuesday.”
Meanwhile, management has entered contingency planning. Since Friday, there have been a series of meetings to prepare for the work stoppage, according to a Times editor. Some managers are looking into how to pull more stories off the wires to fill gaps in the report and asking people individually whether they plan to work on Thursday, according to two Times reporters. Various staffers have been asked to file stories early, or do advance work like they would for a holiday schedule, said Zagata. Guild members got an email Tuesday morning from Jacqueline Welch, the paper’s chief human resources officer, “to remind you of how company policies apply while you are exercising your right,” according to internal messages reviewed by Vanity Fair. “If you are on strike on Thursday, you will not be paid for that day. This is standard practice,” Welch wrote.
The @nytimes continues to refuse workers' demands and marathon bargaining, so @NYTimesGuild is announcing further work stoppage details for Thursday, including a big rally day of at 1 PM ET outside of the Times office. https://t.co/zBYCn5uFeJ pic.twitter.com/W5rFOchoqA
— NewsGuild of New York (@nyguild) December 6, 2022
“We had hoped to reach a fair deal before our deadline, but more than 1,100 of us are ready to take a stand together, for each other and for journalists everywhere.” @JennyVrentas
— NewsGuild of New York (@nyguild) December 6, 2022
All workers who signed the walkout pledge are anticipated to participate in the one-day work stoppage, with some major desks losing 90% of their workforce that day, and other departments being essentially empty of Guild employees.
— NewsGuild of New York (@nyguild) December 6, 2022
At the end of the day, no workers want to go on strike. Our members @NYTimesGuild have returned to the table time and again with fair proposals, and are willing and able to engage in marathon bargaining to reach a deal and avert the strike.
— NewsGuild of New York (@nyguild) December 6, 2022
"In hard times, we were willing to sacrifice to ensure the paper's survival, and we push ourselves and one another every day to make sure the Times lives up to its highest ideals...
— NewsGuild of New York (@nyguild) December 6, 2022
See you Thursday at 1 PM outside of the @nytimes office! Let's show them that workers, united, will never be defeated! pic.twitter.com/Fn2DxyhrgP
— NewsGuild of New York (@nyguild) December 6, 2022
Barring a breakthrough, @nytimes staff will walk out from midnight to 11:59pm Thursday, Dec. 8.
— Maggie Astor (@MaggieAstor) December 7, 2022
We’re asking readers to stand with us on the digital picket line and not visit any NYT platforms tomorrow. Read local news. Make something from a cookbook. Break your Wordle streak. https://t.co/KiUlHAtkuh
A newsroom that political activists and vicious anti-Semites dominate should have its works gummed up by a labor strike. It prevents any of their left-wing propaganda from being further manufactured at current rates, so pull up a chair and watch this lefty rag tear itself apart, if only for a short while.