- Dozens of New York Times tech workers crossed the picket line amid a tech strike.
- The Tech Guild is striking over remote work, pay equity, and subcontracting limits.
- The work stoppage threatened to disrupt operations during an expected election traffic surge.
Dozens of New York Times tech workers have crossed the picket line since the Tech Guild went on strike Monday, sources said.
Two knowledgeable sources, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal operations, estimated about 100 of the Guild’s 600 members were working on Election Day. Benjamin Harnett, an engineer at the Times and union steward, said the figure was under 50.
Harnett said some members opted not to strike because they were on work visas, had concerns about job security, or were anti-union.
“Nobody wants to be on strike election night,” Harnett said. “Everyone is talking about how disappointed they are. People are disappointed that management saw the deadline coming and decided not to meet it. There’s definitely a few people conflicted about the mission, but the vast majority who expressed conflict have ended up on the picket.”
The Tech Guild, formed in 2021, represents Times workers like software developers and data analysts. It’s striking over issues including remote work protections, pay equity, limits on subcontracting, and just cause.
Times management has countered that it made a strong offer promising tech workers generous pay and benefits, including total compensation (salary, bonus, and restricted stock options) of $190,000 — or $40,000 more on average than journalists in the Times Guild.
The work stoppage threatened to disrupt the Times’ operations during an expected election traffic surge. Some speculated that it could impact the Times’ famous needle, a data visualization tool that shows which way a race is leaning. Nate Cohn, the Times’ chief political analyst, said Tuesday that he didn’t know if the Times would be able to publish the needle if there were bugs that couldn’t be fixed due to the strike.
“Publishing the Needle live on election night relies on computer systems maintained by engineers across the company, including some who are currently on strike,” the Times’ election analytics team wrote in an article published Tuesday. “How we display our election forecast will depend on those systems, as well as incoming data feeds, and we will only publish a live version of the Needle if we are confident those systems are stable.”
The strike has exposed some divisions among Tech Guild members — and between the guild and some Times journalists who have expressed a lack of sympathy for the tech workers. The Tech Guild had raised nearly $108,000 on GoFundMe toward a $150,000 strike fund goal as of Tuesday evening.
