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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

#651

Post by gruez »

gtaylor wrote: post #235
gruez wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most families have more than one earner, though.

More than a few do not. You shouldn’t have to barely scrape by as a single parent in one of the most wealthy countries in the world.

It does when the biggest expenditure category is for a positional good (ie. rent). There's only so much land in new york and so many apartment units. Being in a wealthy country means your peers are also wealthy, which means a household with double income can easily outbid a household with a single income.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#652

Post by briandear »

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.

[flagged]

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#653

Post by hollerith »

Justsignedup wrote: post #638
39896880 wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Striking during election week is kind of a crappy move to pull. Can we get a definitive list of weeks where workers’ rights are officially less important than $world_event? That way we can schedule our requests appropriately. We don’t want to inconvenience anyone.

All people who don't care say "can you please go over there, in the corner, where I can't see you, so you can protest and I can appropriately ignore you." The point of a protest is to annoy you. Annoy you enough into action.

What action am I supposed to take on behalf of these cognitively-privileged workers already earning six-figure salaries?

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#654

Post by science4sail »

Justsignedup wrote: post #638
39896880 wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Striking during election week is kind of a crappy move to pull. Can we get a definitive list of weeks where workers’ rights are officially less important than $world_event? That way we can schedule our requests appropriately. We don’t want to inconvenience anyone.

All people who don't care say "can you please go over there, in the corner, where I can't see you, so you can protest and I can appropriately ignore you." The point of a protest is to annoy you. Annoy you enough into action.

Annoyance so that bystanders support the protesters' demands or annoyance so that bystanders act against the protesters out of spite? After all, the Westboro Baptist Church's protests don't seem to have been very effective at promoting the cause of homophobia.

I think that protests are a risky move unless the general population is already sympathetic to the protesters' goals.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#655

Post by Aurornis »

jjcm wrote: post #609

For reference, here's a current job opening for NYT's tech org for a senior software developer: https://boards.greenhouse.io/thenewyorktimes/jobs/4472655005 Salary is 140-155k USD. For reference, here's levels.fyi's breakdown of the New York city area: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/new-yor... Median total comp is 185k. It seems like their total comp for NYT is slightly above the mark based on r…

The article (which is paywalled) says average compensation is $190,000.

They also have 600 technologists on staff, which is massively higher than comparable news organizations. I think this is the real elephant in the room: They're hiring (and therefore spending) at a rate that already far outstrips comparable news organizations.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#656

Post by radlad »

marricks wrote: post #597
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…

> Striking during election week is kind of a crappy move to pull NYTimes has dragged out the negotiations for months, refusing to have a contract. It's kinda a make or break time for the union. When would be better to strike, what time would NYTimes and the audience prefer? It should be during a choke point otherwise management wouldn't listen. Additionally, this is a high traffic time, but not really a high stakes t…

Didn't Wirecutter once strike during Black Friday?

https://nypost.com/2021/11/25/workers-at-new-york-times-wire...

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#657

Post by screye »

chis wrote: post #176
9dev wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a foreigner it’s so alien to me that such a provision isn’t mandated by law anyway, and that there isn’t broad support in the population to restrict employers from firing at will… wild.

An an American it's hard for me to imagine how companies could ever work with universal protections from firing at will. What if you're running a painting business, and there's a downturn in construction. Do you just have to pay people to do nothing, since they haven't done anything wrong and aren't allowed to be fired? Or what if a large company needs to make a strategic pivot and fire some employees to hire others…

> Do you just have to pay people to do nothing

There are shades of grey. Large institutions should fall back on other means (reduced hours, pay cuts, comfortable severance, longer heads-up for firing) before resorting to overnight-mass-layoffs.

> why the U.S. economy has grown so much faster than the EU

Again, shades of grey.

The economy is a means to an end. If economic growth leads to worse life-outcomes for the populace, when what's the point of having a 'powerful economy'. Now, govt. policies shouldn't knee cap the economy. But, let's not tunnel vision on it as the sole indicator of development.

In my experience, Europeans with a $80k wage live better lives than American tech workers on $300k. To put in concrete light : most American tech workers get 14 days of vacation a year. All that work and all that money, and you only get to enjoy 2 weeks a year in the world's richest country ? That's pathetic.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#658

Post by itake »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #600
itake wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Though only for employers that don't care who they hire in the first place, if you fire someone simply because they might be harder to fire lately you don't really care about who you hired.

I actually came to the opposite conclusion: you really care about who you hired, because you define who they work with. If you hire a low performer or someone that isn't a good culture fit, the productivity of your other team members will suffer.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#659

Post by eikenberry »

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?

If the alternative is to be under constant existential threat of being laid off... I could see is as the lesser evil. IMO, recent events are the reason for this item being included.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#660

Post by randerson »

cush wrote: post #239

Doing this the day before the election is savage

If NYT goes down on election day I will cancel my subscription. I don't care whether its because of management being unreasonable or employees being unreasonable. Either way, it shows systemic disrespect to their customers.
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