New York Times employees on strike over pay dispute

The headquarters of the New York Times in New York (illustrative image).

© REUTERS - Lucas Jackson

Text by: RFI Follow

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Journalists, reporters and photojournalists from the New York daily went on strike at midnight following one of the most dramatic labor disputes the company has seen in decades.

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This is unheard of for 40 years.

Some 1,100 members of the NewsGuild, the union that represents 1,450 employees at The

, went off work for 24 hours.

Months of negotiations preceded this conflict which relates in particular to remuneration, one of the main points of friction was the refusal of management to increase wages in the face of galloping inflation.

There's no better feeling than canceling plans, but plan we must.

Join @NYTimesGuild members, @NewsGuild + @NYGuild for a picket and rally at 1pm on Thursday!

All are welcome.

pic.twitter.com/3M1OiSTZMT

— NYTimesGuild (@NYTimesGuild) December 6, 2022

Accused of lacking good faith by the unions, the management refuses, according to them, to share the profits of the company with its employees.

For her part, Meredith Kopit Levien, general manager of the daily, said she was disappointed by this strike. 

Crisis 

The dispute comes as pressure mounts in the media across the Atlantic.

The news channel CNN is preparing to lay off 400 employees, AMC Networks is reducing its workforce by 20%, or 350 people, the publisher of the daily

is laying off 200 journalists.

Hundreds of layoffs … In question: galloping inflation and fears of a recession which are pushing readers and advertisers to reduce their expenses.

While 2022 is on track to become one of the worst stock market years in US media history, the end of the tunnel is not yet in sight for 2023. 

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