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New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

washingtonpost.com

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Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#111

Post by whamlastxmas »

tomjen3 wrote: post #103
impish9208 wrote: post #80

From the WSJ’s reporting on this: > Most employees in the tech union receive pay of more than $100,000, and average compensation, including bonus and restricted stock units, is $190,000, according to a Times spokeswoman. That figure is an average of $40,000 more than members of the Times’s journalist union, she said. > Times leaders have also bristled at the nature of some of the guild’s requests. The union previousl…

Considering the common pay for software devs thats not as high as I expect. The unscented cleaning supplies is a weird request, but it does kinda make sense and the cost should be pretty low - don't know why they removed that requirement.

I am very allergic to many common fragrances and it makes my life really uncomfortable very frequently. Some of them are worse than others but commercial grade cleaning products are some of the worst. And it’s not just problematic for me to be in the bathroom where they’re used, but sometimes entire sections of the building that are close to the bathrooms. I get immediate physically uncomfortable symptoms and prolonged exposure can actually cause ETD and a resulting debilitating vertigo where I can’t even sit up for five hours and vomit the entire time. It’s not just fragrances that contribute to this but it’s a large part of it

The idea that they “bristled” at a union supporting people like me is total shit

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#112

Post by dagw »

laborcontract wrote: post #105
impish9208 wrote: post #80

From the WSJ’s reporting on this: > Most employees in the tech union receive pay of more than $100,000, and average compensation, including bonus and restricted stock units, is $190,000, according to a Times spokeswoman. That figure is an average of $40,000 more than members of the Times’s journalist union, she said. > Times leaders have also bristled at the nature of some of the guild’s requests. The union previousl…

From this article: > The guild said it was asking readers to honor its digital picket line by not playing Times Games products, such as Wordle, and not using the Cooking app. I’m not familiar with digital picket lines, why not ask that people not read via the site? Tying the picket line to Wordle and the cooking app seems to trivialize the importance of the team – Wordle was an acquisition!

My understanding is that, if you judge by traffic, The New York Times is actually a cooking blog and online gaming platform that dabbles a bit in journalism on the side.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#114

Post by dylan604 »

dopylitty wrote: post #64
johndhi wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck. I'm curious what you feel about the following: These days news publications generally have a pretty weak business model and a lot of competition. Does it still make sense to have a union in this case? Why?

Something I've learned from 404 media is journalism actually has a fine business model. People are willing to pay for good journalism. The problem is (much like the rest of the economy) what passes for news media is incredibly top heavy and bloated with managers, executives, and shareholders who suck up money without providing any value. For every journalist there are 15 managers and editors hired for nepotism reason…

> For every journalist there are 15 managers and editors

Really? I don't believe this at all. I have not seen a properly edited published piece online in over a decade, and it continues to get worse. From obvious spelling errors and sentence fragments to full blown loss of coherent thoughts. The obviousness of multiple contributors' work being mashed together with the same information being repeated multiple times within the piece clearly shows that no editor is looking over the work at all. No editor worth their salt would allow that kind of work.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#115

Post by randomdata »

nine_k wrote: post #101
randomdata wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how 40-hour work weeks became a right It became a standard in the US, but is not a right. And while the idea of the 40-hour work week did, indeed, come from labour groups, it was the Great Depression needing effort to try and compel businesses to hire more workers, not the fight of workers, that pushed to see it become a standard.

That might be the final chord, but the tune started back in the 18th century, as a long struggle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day_movement It wasn't a sudden bout of benevolnce from the FDR administration, or from anyone in the management or government.

> It wasn't a sudden bout of benevolnce from the FDR administration

Was there something to suggest it was? Getting workers back working isn't for the benefit of workers.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#116

Post by cowpig »

impish9208 wrote: post #80

From the WSJ’s reporting on this: > Most employees in the tech union receive pay of more than $100,000, and average compensation, including bonus and restricted stock units, is $190,000, according to a Times spokeswoman. That figure is an average of $40,000 more than members of the Times’s journalist union, she said. > Times leaders have also bristled at the nature of some of the guild’s requests. The union previousl…

Let's put those numbers in perspective:

$100k is about $72k after tax[0].

Suppose I want to support a family in NYC. Average cost of living is about $9,000/mo for a family of four[1].

That's $108,000 per year. Or about $36,000 above what I would need to support an average 2-kid family, living paycheck-to-paycheck.

So if I want to be able to support a family, 100k is not even close to enough.

edit: forgot to add the sources

[0] https://www.talent.com/tax-calculator?salary=100000&from=yea...

[1] https://livingcost.org/cost/united-states/ny/new-york

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#117

Post by blitzar »

dylan604 wrote: post #100
randomdata wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Asking us not to use the NYTimes is more of a boycott and a separate question Hence the use of "and". It presents two separate ideas for you to think about: - Respect the pickup line - Get your news elsewhere

[flagged]

If you were words on a page you'd be the fine print.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#118

Post by stego-tech »

impish9208 wrote: post #80

From the WSJ’s reporting on this: > Most employees in the tech union receive pay of more than $100,000, and average compensation, including bonus and restricted stock units, is $190,000, according to a Times spokeswoman. That figure is an average of $40,000 more than members of the Times’s journalist union, she said. > Times leaders have also bristled at the nature of some of the guild’s requests. The union previousl…

When I see people critique those numbers as being “too high”, or demands for additional compensation “unreasonable”, I can’t help but think those people don’t understand that $100k is very much the new $45k of the 2000s, and has much less purchasing power than the latter did at the time.

Truth be told, for the present cost of living in the Northeast in general, you’re looking at a family income of $300k to be “comfortable”, or a single base income of $200k. That’s if you want to buy a new car (of which the bulk cost more than $50k), a starter home that doesn’t need major repairs ($800k+), and still have some money left over to save for retirement; in cities like NYC and Boston, you’re easily looking at $250k single/$400k couple for a “Middle Class” existence.

The brutal reality is that everyone who has to work to survive is grossly underpaid relative to the current cost of living. To ignore this fact (or worse, try to compartmentalize it or limit its scope to a reduced “other” category) endangers both the economy and the state.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#119

Post by dylan604 »

nine_k wrote: post #16
_tk_ wrote: post #4

[flagged]

I've seen a number of creative 404 pages. A creative 500 / 503 page saying something about the tech team being on strike and served off the fronting proxy or LB, not the application servers, would be a cool touch.

Would that not qualify as a harmful sabotage though?

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#120

Post by laborcontract »

dagw wrote: post #112
laborcontract wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From this article: > The guild said it was asking readers to honor its digital picket line by not playing Times Games products, such as Wordle, and not using the Cooking app. I’m not familiar with digital picket lines, why not ask that people not read via the site? Tying the picket line to Wordle and the cooking app seems to trivialize the importance of the team – Wordle was an acquisition!

My understanding is that, if you judge by traffic, The New York Times is actually a cooking blog and online gaming platform that dabbles a bit in journalism on the side.

Hilarious but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true. Upon some reflection, Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce recipe is probably the most that i’ve actively sought the nyt’s content.
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