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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

#521

Post by EMIRELADERO »

raybb wrote: post #153
xnx wrote: post #113

> more than 600 software developers Does anyone have a sense for how this breaks down? I would never have guessed so many full-time employees were necessary to maintain a CMS.

I'm almost certain that 600 software developers is wrong and that it's actually 600 people in the whole union (software developers, data analysts, designers, and product managers). When I was at NYT in 2021 there were like ~300 software developers. Which still seems like a lot but they have legacy COBOL (converted to java) systems to interact with the ancient printing press technologies around the world, a payments t…

> Which still seems like a lot but they have legacy COBOL (converted to java)

I'm still trying to figure out how to start up Aristo (ex-CIS) correctly. What a messy codebase...

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#522

Post by throw4847285 »

Vaslo wrote: post #487
quandrum wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I want management to develop a system to determine who is low-performing, document when those workers don't meet the standards of performance, and reference those documents when they fire someone. It's just asking for due process.

Due process from a union definition is often ridiculous and protects the members beyond what a reasonable customer/employer should expect.

Amazing. That's what negotiating is for. The union gives the maximal version of what they want, the bosses counter, everybody celebrates the results.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#523

Post by selimthegrim »

leereeves wrote: post #423
lucianbr wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As if only low-performing coworkers would be terminated. The total freedom of the company to terminate anyone any time for any reason or no reason is extreme, and now we are pivoting to the other extreme. Funny how that happens.

[flagged]

Um no fault divorce (even without a co-respondent etc) is in fact fairly recent

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#524

Post by metabagel »

bloomingkales wrote: post #441
drawkward wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the current definition of progressivism It's a fairly pro-business paper, certainly not very critical of Israel, and you appear to have completely missed all of its somewhat trans-skeptical reporting and opinion. (The latter pervasive enough to rankle many of its own employees about the tone and tenor of NYT coverage of trans issues.)

I want to believe you, but my hunch is your reply is similar to someone suggesting "Well, you see, you forgot all the pro liberal coverage that Fox News has been doing all year". Does NYT not have a reputation or am I truly out of touch here? I went through some of their podcasts recently and it's all quite one-sided, for example.

I think it’s a mistake to judge the NYT by their podcasts. I canceled my subscription when they reported on the concessions the UAW had won from automakers mostly in terms of how it might affect the bottom line of the companies, and with little to no mention of the effect on the workers and their families.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#525

Post by platz »

quandrum wrote: post #408
stickfigure wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> workers can be terminated only for misconduct or another such reason This is such a weird request for technology workers. You want to work with low-performing coworkers?

No, I want management to develop a system to determine who is low-performing, document when those workers don't meet the standards of performance, and reference those documents when they fire someone. It's just asking for due process.

Isn't employment in the US At-Will anyways?

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#526

Post by MisterBastahrd »

bloomingkales wrote: post #387
yoyohello13 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Striking during election week is kind of a crappy move to pull. That’s leverage. Striking during a time when the business doesn’t care is a dumb move.

Let me correct you, this will be election month at minimum. The NYT kind of brings this kind of heat on itself because it has shifted from being just the paper of record over to an institution to the current definition of progressivism. You can only really do this union kinda stuff against self-important institutions. Which developer is ever going to attempt this on Accenture? They are straight up and honest about th…

You are comically uninformed. If the NYT were even remotely progressive, they'd have been consistently flogging the living shit out of Donald Trump and his idiotic, dementia-driven behavior behind a podium for months now instead of pretending like we should accept it as normal while excoriating Harris for behaving like a mainstream political candidate.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#527

Post by Xelynega »

no_wizard wrote: post #287
stego-tech wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 “comfor…

Funny enough that it’s always “too high” for non executives but executive pay is never policed and any attempts to do so are met with fierce resistance. Which reminds me of another thing. A good friend of mine is currently getting their MBA from a fairly well regarded school. One thing they recently learned about is structuring compensation. The general adage is that whatever you pay an employee must be in reflection…

It is interesting that the person you're replying to used the compensation numbers for other guild employees rather than executives. I wonder why they made that decision

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#528

Post by feedforward »

stickfigure wrote: post #342
legitster wrote: post #323

> The two sides negotiated until late Sunday. The sticking points in recent days were over whether they could get a “just cause” provision in their contract, which means workers can be terminated only for misconduct or another such reason; pay increases and pay equity; and return-to-office policies. This seems like a LOT of issues that still need to be hammered out. It would be one thing if they were disagreeing abou…

> workers can be terminated only for misconduct or another such reason This is such a weird request for technology workers. You want to work with low-performing coworkers?

When the wealth created by those who work at the New York Times is sent out in dividends to those who do no work or create wealth there, what is performance of these rentiers?

You're arguing on the side of the rentiers and parasites who do not work, and lecturing about "low performance".

It's the people doing the work's purview to discuss performance, not the parasites.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#529

Post by metabagel »

avazhi wrote: post #492
drawkward wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the current definition of progressivism It's a fairly pro-business paper, certainly not very critical of Israel, and you appear to have completely missed all of its somewhat trans-skeptical reporting and opinion. (The latter pervasive enough to rankle many of its own employees about the tone and tenor of NYT coverage of trans issues.)

> It's a fairly pro-business paper, certainly not very critical of Israel Sorry, are we both talking about the New York Times in 2024 here? Not a day goes by that there isn’t an article crying about Palestinians and bashing Israel - there’s one right now, just scroll down to the section just above sports. Calling it the preeminent progressive institution in America media today is axiomatic.

Is it crying about Palestinians or just reporting the news? Can you tell the difference?

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#530

Post by hosh »

bloomingkales wrote: post #441
drawkward wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the current definition of progressivism It's a fairly pro-business paper, certainly not very critical of Israel, and you appear to have completely missed all of its somewhat trans-skeptical reporting and opinion. (The latter pervasive enough to rankle many of its own employees about the tone and tenor of NYT coverage of trans issues.)

I want to believe you, but my hunch is your reply is similar to someone suggesting "Well, you see, you forgot all the pro liberal coverage that Fox News has been doing all year". Does NYT not have a reputation or am I truly out of touch here? I went through some of their podcasts recently and it's all quite one-sided, for example.

I was very disappointed with NYT’s coverage of the 2020 elections, and it has been difficult for me to take their reporting seriously since then. That they had their own workers striking is not a good look, yet unsurprising to me at this point. Just my opinion, I don’t know if this counts as reputation.

(NPR was even more disappointing because they positioned themselves as centrist; APM’s Marketplace was closer centrist that than NPR).

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