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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

#281

Post by piltdownman »

reaperducer wrote: post #252
dartos wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 2nd quote is kind of funny, but the first one isn’t. Tech generates more money than the Times. It makes sense that the employees should be paid to reflect that. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with high paid workers striking for even higher pay. It’s not like the suits don’t hoard bonuses for themselves.

Tech generates more money than the Times. It's the journalists that create the content for the tech end. Without them, there would be no Times tech employees.

To reductio ad absurdum, without the advertisers there'd be no journalists.

The problem remains that with the advertisers, there cannot be journalism.

Little distinguishes much of american mass-media 'journalism' from a ChatGPT precis of a Press Release or Reuters/AP wire. What does is generally in the form of an Op-Ed, and is generally at the behest or bias of a billionaire or their lobbying proxy.

In 2024 this has gotten to the point where America's Largest Newspaper chain will not endorse a presidential candidate out of fear. That's 200+ separate publications.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/29/media/usa-today-gannett-n...

Both the advertisers and the journalists rely on the Tech Employees as their core dependency for distribution and scaling factor, and are weighted in compensation accordingly. Much as it ever was - the people selling adspace and doing the logistics of distribution always made more than the people writing copy or typesetting.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#282

Post by kylebenzle »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #228
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…

> I can’t help but think those people don’t understand that $100k is very much the new $45k of the 2000s It really isn't.

I'd bet it's young people making these outlandish comparisons.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#283

Post by fmbb »

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…

What’s the point of a comment listing numbers like this?

Have you looked at what the owners of the New York Times make and compared that to the average “newspaper owner” in the US?

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#284

Post by Devasta »

vijucat wrote: post #47
bwestergard wrote: post #3

I am also a member of the union at NPR, on the subway headed to the picket line in solidarity right now. Happy to answer any questions. I encourage everyone to respect the picket line and get your news elsewhere until the workers get a deal. The Times Workers are holding the line against arbitrary return to office mandates and for Just Cause protections. The vast majority of HN consists of developers, designers, QA,…

Genuine question: what prevents the NYT from offshoring these jobs if they can be done from home? I feel for you, as a fellow worker, but unless there is something hyper-local about the job such as regulatory requirements or trust issues with IP protection, the jobs will go to the ones who work hard without complaining too much.

There is nothing about the shitty office cube farm that imbues magic anti-offshoring properties to your job.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#285

Post by kylebenzle »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #147
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…

People will laugh at it, but pet bereavement should absolutely be a thing. The saddest I've ever been in my life was when my dog died. Perhaps seven days is a bit much, but when you go to the bargaining table you don't start with what you want, you start past that point then negotiate down.

I'm sorry for you loss but it's silly nonetheless to try and codify a solution to an individuals issues.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#286

Post by purple_ferret »

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 would never have guessed so many full-time employees were necessary to maintain a CMS.

Well they also run Cooking and Games, which has gotten pretty big. I imagine they have some hand in audio too.

They run their own services, such as messaging and ad delivery, too.

IIRC, they basically developed things like D3 and Backbone back in the day (or paid the maintainers)

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#287

Post by no_wizard »

stego-tech wrote: post #118
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 “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 of the multiple you get back from that employee. For example a ratio of 5:1 would be for every 1 dollar you pay you get 5 back.

When you start thinking about it like that, you realize just how underpaid people are. So many companies - in fact the vast majority - it’s much higher, in tech for example it’s usually around 10:1 and often as high as 25:1 or more.

This makes it much more straightforward in understanding things and the power imbalance when thinking about it like this

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#288

Post by xcrjm »

stego-tech wrote: post #118
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 “comfor…

Just because you can't be comfortable in a used car with a fixer upper home doesn't mean other people can't be. You're talking about your preferences like they're a bare minimum and they're not. Plenty of people live perfectly comfortable lives without those luxuries.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#289

Post by reaperducer »

cush wrote: post #239

Doing this the day before the election is savage

Doing this the day before the election is savage

Wirecutter (also a Times property) went on strike during Black Friday.

Unions can be pretty savage.

Like the one in Chicago that was striking at a hotel, but couldn't get any traction, so for weeks took to blaring bullhorns and sirens outside a children's hospital at 2am to put pressure on the city to put pressure on the hotel.

In the end, the hotel closed and the people who tortured the sick children ended up losing their jobs.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#290

Post by kylebenzle »

dbalatero wrote: post #240
thefourthchime wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue is that it comes off as egregiously woke.

It's woke to grieve important members of your household? You don't think that's a little reactionary?

It makes no sense as a policy.
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