It seems the Gray Lady has more trouble brewing between employees and upper management as more than 1,300 employees of The New York Times refuse to return to office life — even for as little as three days each week.
The return to some semblance of normalcy — that is, showing up to an office as a professional employee — was scheduled to begin this week for Times' writers and other staff, but it opened a new front in the ongoing feud between union members who work at the formerly prestigious newspaper and executives over pay and work expectations.
Interestingly, the more than 1,300 employees who signed a pledge to refuse returning to the office cite inflation as one of the reasons why they can't give up remote work. Apparently "being forced to return to the office during a period of high inflation means workers will have to spend more money on gas, mass transit, clothing and lunches, despite the lack of salary increases," Times employee Tom Coffey — also an active union member — told The New York Post. "With no salary increase, it amounts to a de facto pay cut."
Well, no kidding. It's as if the Times' employees, after months of covering for President Joe Biden and his administration's failures and bungling of economic policy have woken up to smell the reality for millions of Americans outside the insulating bubble of the Times' elitist slack channels: real wages are down between three and four percent while inflation — which they defended as "transitory," inline with Biden talking points — continues to increase month after month.
For New York Times executives, their bid to entice employees back to their offices and cubicles — apparently just a lunch box — is not working.
The @nytimes is giving employees branded lunch boxes this week as a return-to-office perk. We want respect and a fair contract instead — so I’m working from home this week along with 1,300 of my @NYTimesGuild and @NYTGuildTech colleagues, with support from @WirecutterUnion.
— Haley Willis (@heytherehaley) September 12, 2022
And remember, all of this is over an expectation that employees will spend three days per week in the office with the other days remaining remote. "We continue to believe that a hybrid work environment best suits the New York Times at this moment," a spokesperson for the paper told The New York Post.
Meanwhile, the News Guild that represents many Times employees is pushing for an eight percent raise, plus a 5.25 percent cost of living increase, while demanding remote employees be allowed to continue working outside the office until at least next July.
The next round of contract negotiations is set for September 14 during which employees — who are refusing to go to work — will hoot and holler about how they "can't" work because of how bad the economy is — due to the policies of the man they feverishly worked to get elected. Maybe if The Times had reported on and confirmed Hunter Biden's laptop-from-hell before the 2020 election they wouldn't be in this mess?
As Times staffers have been working in the comfort of their snuggies while keeping CNN's slumping ratings from completely collapsing, inflation has soared for nearly two years. Now, the sticker shock for those considering the reality of returning to the office is hitting and they have Joe Biden, and themselves to an extent, to blame. Well, elections have consequences.
One of those consequences, apparently a leading one for union and guild members, is how much it will cost them to get to work and continue to sustain their lifestyles. Thanks to Joe Biden and Democrats' "Build Back Better" agenda, reporters' real wages of two years ago are now at least three percent lower, and inflation — as seen in Tuesday's read of August's Consumer Price Index — continues to increase.
Now, fully headlong into a recession, The Times' staff — and executives — has worse days ahead. Still, don't bet on them to truthfully report the cause of new or worsening economic pain or hold the Biden administration accountable for its tax-and-spend policies.
Perhaps executives at The Times need to take a page from new CNN boss Chris Licht's book and set some expectations — then clean house of anyone who falls short.
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