BREAKING: 1K NYT WORKERS CONFIRM WALKOUT AFTER TIMES MANAGEMENT WALKS AWAY FROM THE TABLE

For immediate release: Wednesday, December 7, 2022

1K NYT WORKERS CONFIRM WALKOUT AFTER TIMES MANAGEMENT WALKS AWAY FROM THE TABLE 

Although bargaining has picked up pace since workers signed a walkout pledge last week, company reps continue to refuse to agree to demands and reach a deal.  

The work stoppage will commence at midnight ET on December 8th and go on for 24 hours; workers and supporters will rally in front of the NYT office tomorrow at 1 PM ET

NEW YORK — The New York Times Guild has announced their official decision to walk out tomorrow, Thursday, December 8, due to the company’s failure to bargain in good faith, reach a fair contract agreement with the workers and meet their demands. The Times Guild bargaining committee offered to stay at the table for as long as it took to reach a deal and avert the walk-out, but management walked away from the table a little before 7 PM ET and refused to return, with five hours to go. 

It’s been a week since the Times Guild sent their walk-out pledge with 1,100 signatories in favor. Though members have acknowledged a slight tone shift at the bargaining table and increased urgency from company representatives, Times management would not agree on core issues. 

Members are asking readers to stand with them on the digital picket line tomorrow. “Read local news. Listen to public radio. Make something from a cookbook. Break your Wordle streak,” members across the unit tweeted. Last week, the unit put out a public support letter campaign along with their pledge announcement. As of tonight, over 2000 people from the public have sent letters to CEO Meredith Kopit Levien and Publisher A.G. Sulzberger. 

As of tonight,  the company continues to run employee’s health funds at a loss. Management continues to refuse the $65K salary floor proposed by the Times Guild and their wage proposal still fails to meet the economic moment, lagging far behind both inflation and the average rate of wage gains in the U.S. Over the life of the contract, their offer now amounts to an annual raise of only 2.875 percent. 

The last work stoppage of this scale was a multi-day Guild-initiated strike in September and October of 1965. There was a 88-day pressmen strike in 1978 and in 1981, the Guild struck for 6.5 hours. 

The Times Guild will hold a public rally tomorrow afternoon at 1 PM ET outside of the New York Times office (620 8th Ave.) where Guild members like Nikole Hannah Jones, Tom Coffey, Jenny Vrentas, Stacy Cowley, and Bill Baker are set to speak. They will be joined by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, as well as Times Tech Guild members, and leaders from New York State AFL-CIO, CWA District 1, and The NewsGuild of New York. 

The rally will also be live-streamed on Twitter @NYTimesGuild. 

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