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New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

washingtonpost.com

491–500 of 1001 posts

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#491

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…

> 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.

This sounds like how American conservatives describe it rather than how most readers or actual progressives would - the latter having significant misgivings about how it covered Iraq, Occupy Wall Street, the 2016 election coverage of things like the email hacks and FBI investigations relative to their actual substance, the tone of their coverage and editorials about transgender issues, etc.

The best way I’ve found to describe the NYT is as representing the east coast establishment. The issues which earned them attacks as liberal were things like favorably covering gay rights, which affects those elites (even rich sons of influential families can be born gay so everyone knows someone who benefits from that), but they tend to be more conservative on things like workers rights or tax issues which don’t affect or may even threaten their affluent readers. Climate change affects everyone but their opinion pieces are going to be things like “buy an induction stove” or “vacation in Nepal before the snow melts and buy some carbon offsets” rather than “stop flying and eat less beef” because their target reader wants to do the former and not the latter.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's a reasonable offer, there is no clarity in the article about exactly what is so bad they need to strike. Eg if they said we haven't had a pay rise for ten years, that would provide context. Nothing in the article gives a justification for a strike. That's not to say the justification doesn't exist but it's not remotely elucidated.

They don’t think RTO is reasonable, which is a completely logical stance to take if you’ve setup your life working from home (esp if it’s hours from the office).

... which is something people did on their own, without agreeing with their employers on duration etc.

I love working from home, but its just a non-guaranteed perk that can go away anytime and eventually it will, and companies shouldn't break their backs to accommodate people. There is free job market to match one's expectations, triple especially in places like New York.

I really, really don't get folks who setup their lives in the middle of nowhere to save some bucks and then they complain that world and work doesn't come to their doorstep. You took the risk in maybe unclear situation, you bear the consequences if the risk doesn't pan out your way.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#494
post #45

Just cause feels like a stretch. Is that common in a lot of employment contracts? Feels like one of those rules that sounds like it could make sense but in reality it does not play out and you get this weird cohort of unproductive employees that you can never get rid of.

It's very common in union contracts. They way it usually works is there is a probationary period that you can fire someone under for any reason (usually 90 days), but after that, supposedly you're more protected. That said, in practice, it doesn't really prevent you from being part of a layoff or anything. You'll just get more notice and complaints.

Probation periods are a mess, b/c they incentivizes "hire and fire".

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#496

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.

Why is that extreme? If you own a company, why shouldn't you be able to fire someone at any time? If you work a job, why shouldn't you be able to quit at any time? I don't think it's great that our society tries to treat work like it's family, and jobs like they're some guaranteed long-term relationship. It sets people up with the wrong expectations. Your company will lay you off or fire you once they run out of mone…

> If you own a company, why shouldn't you be able to fire someone at any time?

Because that is bad for the individual worker. We live in a society, and society should look out for humans before corporations.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#497
post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As much as I am a bolshy union member and supporter, this doesn't seem too bad on the surface, the article doesn't make clear what the issues with it are? The linked article is the New York Times writing about a strike _against_ the New York Times. Factor this into your assessments.

If you're implying bias, consider that the news and editorial staff have been unionized since the 1940s.

Consider also that these workers have been unionized for over two years and the NYT is refusing to acknowledge them.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#498
post #492

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.

I'm sorry, when did the NYT call Isreal's behavior genocidal? I must have missed it.

Any objective observer would call Israel's behavior abhorrent wrt Gaza. In fact, it seems like the majority of the planet is doing that, if the UN is representative.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#499
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 peop…

If you're talking about the Cambria, part of the issue there was that both the hotel and the hospital apparently refused to sign complaints. The length of the strike (it went on for almost a year) was a more salient issue than the hours, and a lot of the news coverage was driven by irritable neighbors. Either way: the City Council passed a noise-free zone ordinance as a result, and designated Lurie first.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are tech workers, my industry, so committed to this ideology? Do you think the tech layoffs of the last few years was a justified culling of lazy idiots?

yes mostly, i worked with many lazy idiots, who undeservedly made millions while our clients and customers suffered

That's not how it went for us. I would have chosen a very different set of people to sack.

Unfortunately I think those types of layoffs are separate from "firing" and probably not covered by these terms.

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