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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

#51

Post by dbalatero »

conartist6 wrote: post #36
dbalatero wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Times leadership knew this was coming and dragged their feet on negotiating.

I don't doubt it. While I wholeheartedly support their legal right to organize, I am not required to celebrate at the cynicism of attempting to undermine faith in democracy to win a better job

> I am not required to celebrate at the cynicism of attempting to undermine faith in democracy to win a better job

You're being melodramatic. There are piles of news sources to choose from, absent NYT. And that assumes it falls over due to the strike, although it seems likely they need workers on hand to do ops.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#52

Post by rsynnott »

corndoge wrote: post #13
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,…

They're striking against return to office? I work from home and value it but it never would occur to me to strike for that. I view it as a privilege and not a right. Almost everyone in the world has to go on location for their jobs. I am curious why it is so important to NYT workers in particular that they would strike over it - is there something particularly bad about the location?

> They're striking against return to office? I work from home and value it but it never would occur to me to strike for that. I view it as a privilege and not a right

Meanwhile in the early 20th century:

> They're striking over a weekend? I work five days a week and value it but it never would occur to me to strike for that. I view it as a privilege and not a right

Like, this is generally how it goes; workers' rights are generally won, not granted by divine authority.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#53

Post by lolinder »

conartist6 wrote: post #41
lolinder wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> was chosen to hurt me extremely badly if I should feel morally obligated to follow your advice A few sincere questions: 1. Are there no other news sources that you'd trust to convey the binary of 'who won the election?' 2. Assuming that there aren't, what negative effect would there be to you from not knowing the result of the election for a few days? I'm sorta hoping that "hurt me extremely badly" is an exaggerati…

That's assuming the result is a binary this year. I'm expecting torrents of news about this contest, which is likely to turn into a brawl.

And what harm to you would it be to not be aware of whatever nonsense is happening for a few days? Would you have been extremely damaged if you had not heard about January 6th until a week later?

Unless you sincerely think there's going to be widespread political violence in your specific area, knowing about what's going on in at this exact moment is honestly as much about entertainment as anything else. And if you need local news, the NYT is typically not the best place.

I'm as guilty of rubbernecking as anyone, but I wouldn't go so far as to claim that boycotting my favorite news source for a few days would be extremely damaging to me.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#54

Post by bwestergard »

conartist6 wrote: post #36
dbalatero wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Times leadership knew this was coming and dragged their feet on negotiating.

I don't doubt it. While I wholeheartedly support their legal right to organize, I am not required to celebrate at the cynicism of attempting to undermine faith in democracy to win a better job

There are many other excellent news sources. I suggest NPR, The LA Times, or the Washington Post.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#55

Post by marricks »

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.

> “Work hard without complaining”

I don’t think this is the outlook of an ally.

I think the answer to that is a strong union able to bring down the website and get management to the table.

This is why we all need unions.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#56

Post by eduction »

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,…

Do you know if they are still seeking a four day work week and/or the non performance bonuses? The last update I saw was in September https://www.semafor.com/article/09/15/2024/new-york-times-te...

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#57

Post by solatic »

johndhi wrote: post #31
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,…

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?

Unions are about more than compensation, they can also fight for working conditions, like the ability to work from home and the processes involved in termination, which are both at issue in this strike.

Contrary to perhaps popular misconception, if the business is unprofitable, unions aren't going to demand a larger piece of a disappearing pie. If there isn't money to be paid out, there's nothing to fight over. Leading a union or negotiating for a union does not fundamentally turn you into an unreasonable person at the negotiating table.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#58

Post by JD557 »

corndoge wrote: post #13
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,…

They're striking against return to office? I work from home and value it but it never would occur to me to strike for that. I view it as a privilege and not a right. Almost everyone in the world has to go on location for their jobs. I am curious why it is so important to NYT workers in particular that they would strike over it - is there something particularly bad about the location?

> I work from home and value it but it never would occur to me to strike for that.

I believe that the value from WFH varies a lot from person to person.

If you were working from the office before and the company changed to a WFH policy, you might see it as a nice to have. You already made some life choices to accommodate going to the office. Maybe you even go to the office anyway.

But, if you were hired when the company already had WFH, you probably made some life choices based on that (buying a house far away from the city, having kids, not buying a car,...). In that case, mandatory RTO is a complete disaster (especially with the housing crisis) and you pretty much have no option other than resigning.

I assume NYT was doing WFH since ~2020, so a lot of employees probably took decisions based on WFH, therefore the strikes.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#59

Post by richwater »

marricks wrote: post #55
vijucat wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> “Work hard without complaining” I don’t think this is the outlook of an ally. I think the answer to that is a strong union able to bring down the website and get management to the table. This is why we all need unions.

> I think the answer to that is a strong union able to bring down the website

Unions cannot cause intentional or malicious destruction of their workplace.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/01/politics/labor-strike-supreme...

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#60

Post by fwip »

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,…

Has the union asked for people to "boycott" the NYT during their strike? I know that sometimes unions want that, and sometimes they want the opposite.
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