“New Journalists York Times” on 24-hour strike

Journalists and other members of the New York NewsGwild Union say they have lost patience from procrastinating negotiations on a deal since their contract expired in March 2021.

The NewsGuild Union, representing employees on strike, announced last week that 11,000 employees would go on strike from Thursday's midnight if the parties failed to reach an agreement on their contracts.

NewsGuild announced Thursday morning on Twitter that <x0 employees were on strike, the first of 40 years”. The union said the “width to refuse to work is not easy, but our members will do everything needed for a better news editor for all”.

The negotiations were held Tuesday and Wednesday, but the parties failed to agree on issues involving salaries, remote labour policies and the rating system of company employees, which the union says is dictated by racial prejudice.

The union announced on Twitter Wednesday evening that failure of the agreement paved the way for the strike.

We were willing to work as hard as necessary to reach a fair agreement,” said the union, “but company management left five hours ago. We know the value we have,” The union added.

But newspaper spokeswoman “New The York Times”, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said the parties were still in negotiations when the company was announced the strike would be carried out. “It's disappointing that they are taking such an extreme act”.

Mrs. Rhoades Ha told the agency “Associated Press” that the company is prepared to continue reflecting the news, relying on international correspondents and other journalists who are not union members.

The newspaper's executive editor, Joe Kahn, sent an email to the news editor Thursday, writing that the newspaper's publication on Thursday would have a strong “ ” content, but preparing news would be the hardest “than usually”, the paper itself reported in its article on the strike.

In a report sent to staff on Tuesday evening, Deputy General Editor Cliff Levy called the planned strike “to be surprised” and “a disturbing moment between negotiations on a new contract.” He said it would be the first union strike since 1981 and “were conducted despite the company's efforts to reach a” agreement.

But in a letter last week signed by more than 1,000 employees, the NewsGuild Union said the leaders had “dragged feet” for almost two years and that “koha to achieve a fair” contract by the end of the year was ending.

According to the union, the company had told employees who would go on strike that they would not be paid on protest day. They were also asked to work overtime so that they could leave everything ready before the strike.

In recent years the newspaper “New The York Times” has faced several protests -- the last one, half-day protests in August by technology workers who claimed unfair work practices. The last week that caused the newspaper's publication to break off took place in 1978 and lasted 88 days. / VOA