The New York Times Tech Guild represents more than 600 software developers, product managers, data scientists and designers who power the newspaper’s digital services — including live blogs, mobile push notifications and election feeds.
As noted by The Washington Post New York Times tech guild has been negotiating its first union contract since 2022, the latest talks lasted the night before and reached a deadlock, provoking a massive strike. In fact, the day before the start of the US elections, the newspaper’s servers may be left completely without service.
The New York Times’ senior software engineer, Kate Hene, says that the election brings an increase in traffic to the newspaper’s website, creating a «system load» that will be difficult to handle without experienced engineers on hand.
The negotiations have been focused on three key issues: protection from dismissal without cause and due process; return-to-work policy; and equality and fairness in pay (the study found a pay gap for women and black people).
Meanwhile, more than 750 journalists of the newspaper signed a statement saying that they would not be able to do their job without technical staff.
«We are very nervous. Everything is very active on the eve of Election Day, and no one knows what will happen if there are no technicians to fix problems on the fly,» said Stacey Cowley, a business reporter for The New York Times.
A spokeswoman for The New York Times said earlier that the company has «robust plans to ensure that the publication’s mission is» fulfilled, but declined to specify what measures have been put in place.