37 votes

New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike (gifted link)

11 comments

  1. [6]
    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link
    Of note: Sometimes the "what can I do to support this labor movement* comes up and besides a GoFundMe, not using the apps is part of that ask this time.

    Of note:

    The striking employees will picket in front of the newspaper’s Times Square office from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and are asking readers to honor the Tech Guild’s digital picket line by not accessing Times games or cooking apps.

    Sometimes the "what can I do to support this labor movement* comes up and besides a GoFundMe, not using the apps is part of that ask this time.

    28 votes
    1. [4]
      updawg
      Link Parent
      Nooo I was about to go shopping using the grocery list in the cooking app lol I've been super lazy about what I eat and this is now sapping me of my drive to get back to cooking my own food more...

      Nooo I was about to go shopping using the grocery list in the cooking app lol I've been super lazy about what I eat and this is now sapping me of my drive to get back to cooking my own food more often...

      6 votes
      1. [3]
        DefinitelyNotAFae
        Link Parent
        I mean definitely export the list out if it's already there :) I know Whisk turned into Samsung Food, but I used to really like them and Meallime as similar recipe + shopping list apps that made...

        I mean definitely export the list out if it's already there :)

        I know Whisk turned into Samsung Food, but I used to really like them and Meallime as similar recipe + shopping list apps that made cooking easier

        Now I use a lot of tiktok recipes so I still have to build my own list (but i'm following chefs/cooks not like... weird random recipes people) but the videos are inspiring.

        8 votes
        1. [2]
          updawg
          Link Parent
          It's just a lot nicer to use its curated and consolidated interface.

          It's just a lot nicer to use its curated and consolidated interface.

          1 vote
    2. DefinitelyNotAFae
      Link Parent
      The weekly flashback quiz is not struck as it's made by the newsroom (source the Tech Guild's Tiktok account)

      The weekly flashback quiz is not struck as it's made by the newsroom (source the Tech Guild's Tiktok account)

  2. smores
    (edited )
    Link
    The guild gave the company several months notice of their plans to strike if the company wouldn’t commit to a more aggressive bargaining schedule and stop committing unfair labor practices. Though...

    The guild gave the company several months notice of their plans to strike if the company wouldn’t commit to a more aggressive bargaining schedule and stop committing unfair labor practices. Though the company has come to an increased number of bargaining sessions over the past week or so, they still haven’t budged on some basic and crucial language in the contract, including “just cause”, a clause in many union contracts (including the NYT newsroom contract) that requires the company to provide just cause when terminating an employee.

    The guild is also running a gofundme to provide financial support for striking workers with financial obligations that would make it challenging or impossible for them to go without pay for an extended period of time.

    18 votes
  3. smores
    (edited )
    Link
    The remote workers who aren’t able to picket in person have been making online, union-themed games: A dashboard for all of the alternative games that the remote tech workers have been building...

    The remote workers who aren’t able to picket in person have been making online, union-themed games:

    A dashboard for all of the alternative games that the remote tech workers have been building during the strike: https://nytimesguild.org/tech/guild-builds/

    A union word search: https://thewordsearch.com/puzzle/7694208/tech-guild-strike-search-word

    A union Connections puzzle: https://connections.swellgarfo.com/game/-OArykvIwwFTPC39oZBV

    (I’ll keep updating this comment as new ones get published, in case anyone’s having fun with them)

    18 votes
  4. EgoEimi
    Link
    I hope the NYT Tech Guild gets everything it asks for, and that the NYT realize that it owes its current success to them. The NYT is most profitable newspaper in the US and thrived while others...

    I hope the NYT Tech Guild gets everything it asks for, and that the NYT realize that it owes its current success to them.

    The NYT is most profitable newspaper in the US and thrived while others sunk and failed. I think that the NYT owes its success to having possibly the best digital experience of any major newspaper, which attracts digital subscribers and gets them pay for add-on digital services like NYT Cooking and NYT Games. Somehow the NYT historically managed to attract top talent:

    • Khoi Vinh, NYT's old design director responsible for establishing the foundations of how NYT looks and feels online. I've been following him for a long time: newspaper websites were pure shit, and Khoi Vinh created this timeless design that bridged traditional newsprint and the screen. Every news site has since been influenced by his design: it's like the Seinfeld of online news site design.
    • Mike Bostock, legendary creator of the ubiquitous D3.js web data visualization library, led data visualization projects at NYT for a while and was responsible for helping to make possible industry-defining data journalism.
    • And more

    For much of the 2010s, the NYT was the only newspaper with good web and mobile UX. Other newspaper sites were pure bunk. The few that tried offering apps; those apps were also hot bunk.

    9 votes