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New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

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Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#51

Post by hungie »

gamepsys wrote: post #2

This could be a blueprint for how other tech departments unionize, but I suspect NYT is a unique case because of their politics. Can such a left wing cornerstone really afford to look anti-union inside their own house? This gives the workers more leverage than they would otherwise have in other companies. In any of the places I worked at in the past an anti-union consulting firm would have been called in to bust thin…

The NYT is not a left wing organization. It aligns, mostly, with a centrist Democrat politically. That position puts it pretty center right on the global scale.

A left wing paper would typically be pretty anti capitalist, anti imperial, etc. which the NYT is definitely not.

This is a global forum, it's important to remember that while the democrats in the US are called "the left" there, they really really are not a left wing party.

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#52

Post by noobermin »

wpietri wrote: post #24
tptacek wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuing to do business with a company whose employees are striking isn't "crossing the picket line". Crossing the picket line means undermining a strike directly by supply labor when organized labor is using a labor embargo as leverage. To avoid crossing the NYT picket line, don't write for the NYT.

I think at least these days, usage of the term can include customers. For example, this from the University of Maine's Bureau of Labor Education: "Customers may refuse to cross a picket line and picketers have the right to ask customers to honor their picket but should not intimidate, block customer access, disparage a company’s product, or say anything that is untrue or casts the product in a false or misleading lig…

My honest opinion, asking customers not to do business doesn't really make sense as customer demand can add to the pressure on management when their workers are not to be found and all they have are temps who are, actually, crossing the picket line. I never understood this stance. It sounds much more like a morality stance than one based on strategy to get management to the table.

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#53

Post by tootie »

notfried wrote: post #17

[flagged]

NYT is by far the biggest success story in digital news. They are still building their subscriber base by making themselves a full-on lifestyle brand. Aside from being the preeminent newspaper in probably the whole world, they are driving a ton of engagement with games, cooking, wirecutter and The Athletic. Not to mention how much they leverage visual and data-driven journalism. I'd also imagine they are a huge juicy target for hackers of all stripes with all the info they are sitting on and the people they piss off.

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#54

Post by norir »

seneca wrote: post #15
neaden wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Can such a left wing cornerstone really afford to look anti-union inside their own house?" - The NYTimes isn't left wing and being anti-union is entirely within their wheelhouse. Now they won't come out and say "We don't like unions" all their issues will of course be why this specific union isn't a good idea at this specific time, but they'd never willingly accept a union unless they really don't think they have a…

> The NYTimes isn't left wing Allsides media bias rating for NYT is lean left[1], a -2.2 with -6 as the most extreme and 0 as neutral. Rating is left for their opinion section[2], a -4. 1. https://www.allsides.com/news-source/new-york-times 2. https://www.allsides.com/news-source/new-york-times-opinion-...

I don't fully agree with how neutral is defined. The US has always been a right leaning country for better and worse. I might be able to agree with Allsides on a relative scale but I think all corporate media has a right leaning bias relative to what one would expect from non-profit media. Since very few people regularly consume non-profit media, it is not surprising to me that the NYTimes appears on the left even though I do not agree that it is on an absolute scale.

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#55

Post by mbrumlow »

hungie wrote: post #42
notfried wrote: post #17

[flagged]

Maintaining the site, embedding rich media content in the site, managing dynamic elements including apis, ads, etc, managing the cms software, managing payments, building customer service infrastructure, internal tools for developing and launching, security personnel, all the games, tracking engagement and reporting business metrics, building software to manage the physical processes printing and distribution of a ma…

> The complexity of a massive org like the NYT is significantly non trivial.

I think that is the point. At face value what they produce, simply should not be that complex. It seems it’s complex for the sake of being a big complex organization. And unions will only solidify that into stone to prevent any sort of optimization that would bring the complexity down.

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#56

Post by Sivart13 »

oconnore wrote: post #32
addicted wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The guild, which was formed in 2022, has yet to secure a contract after more than two years of bargaining. This seems like a pretty reasonable reason to strike. Arguably it’s the most justifiable reason to strike.

[flagged]

The point of organizing a union is to negotiate a contract. One that includes terms that individual workers wouldn't have been able to secure on their own.

A union that's recognized but doesn't have a contract may as well not be a union at all. Basically the only power they can exercise is to strike.

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#57

Post by gamepsys »

oconnore wrote: post #32
addicted wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The guild, which was formed in 2022, has yet to secure a contract after more than two years of bargaining. This seems like a pretty reasonable reason to strike. Arguably it’s the most justifiable reason to strike.

[flagged]

It means that even though there are members in the guild/union, the company NYT negotiates individually with every member of the guild/union instead of going through the guild/union.

The entire worker benefit of the union is collective bargaining and NYT has rejected working with the unions.

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#58

Post by [deleted] »

mbrumlow wrote: post #55
hungie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maintaining the site, embedding rich media content in the site, managing dynamic elements including apis, ads, etc, managing the cms software, managing payments, building customer service infrastructure, internal tools for developing and launching, security personnel, all the games, tracking engagement and reporting business metrics, building software to manage the physical processes printing and distribution of a ma…

> The complexity of a massive org like the NYT is significantly non trivial. I think that is the point. At face value what they produce, simply should not be that complex. It seems it’s complex for the sake of being a big complex organization. And unions will only solidify that into stone to prevent any sort of optimization that would bring the complexity down.

[deleted]

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#59

Post by Djdjur7373bb »

RobRivera wrote: post #44
notfried wrote: post #17

[flagged]

What have you done to better understand the technical worker needs of the NYT?

Are you suggesting it's unreasonable to ask here without doing his own independent research? It seems like a reasonable thing to discuss here.

Re: New York Times tech workers union votes to authorize a strike

#60

Post by hungie »

mbrumlow wrote: post #55
hungie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maintaining the site, embedding rich media content in the site, managing dynamic elements including apis, ads, etc, managing the cms software, managing payments, building customer service infrastructure, internal tools for developing and launching, security personnel, all the games, tracking engagement and reporting business metrics, building software to manage the physical processes printing and distribution of a ma…

> The complexity of a massive org like the NYT is significantly non trivial. I think that is the point. At face value what they produce, simply should not be that complex. It seems it’s complex for the sake of being a big complex organization. And unions will only solidify that into stone to prevent any sort of optimization that would bring the complexity down.

Did you read the list of things I posted they have to do to ship their product? It's non trivial because those are hard problems and their space is large. It should be that complex because it is that complex.
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