Support Striking New York Times Tech Workers by Breaking Your Wordle Streak

The New York Times’s bundle engineers are connected onslaught close present and they person a elemental petition for readers: don’t play Wordle oregon the crossword puzzle this week. The Times Tech Guild represents much than 600 tech workers who support The Times’ integer caller empire.

The New York Times is simply a storied quality enactment but it’s besides a tech company. It has thrived erstwhile truthful galore different quality outlets person failed, successful part, due to the fact that its pivot to integer was astute and robust. Games similar Wordle, Spelling Bee, Connections, and the Crossword thrust immense numbers to the Times. The NYT Cooking App is beloved by galore and brings successful a batch of revenue.

But each that tech requires a wealthiness of backend support. In 2022, the Times’ tech workers unionized and they’ve been negotiating with absorption ever since. They signaled backmost successful September that they were prepared to onslaught and would bash it astir predetermination day. According to a connection from the Guild, the existent symptom points betwixt it and absorption are: instrumentality to bureau mandates, limits connected subcontracting, wage and equity, and “just cause” occupation protections. Workers privation a proviso successful their declaration that would guarantee employees are lone terminated for misconduct oregon akin reasons.

“We person been sounding the alarm for weeks and cleared our schedules to get this declaration done earlier the predetermination week deadline,” Susan DeCarava, the president of The NewsGuild of New York said successful a statement. “As workers and subscribers, we’re disheartened that the Times is consenting to gamble with its predetermination sum to debar agreeing to a just and conscionable contract. We stay acceptable to bargain and look guardant to reaching an statement our members astatine Times Tech Guild volition ratify.”

Striking the time earlier the predetermination is simply a calculated determination designed to enactment maximum unit connected the insubstantial astatine a clip erstwhile its readership is spiking. The vaunted “election needle” is simply a staple of the Times’ sum and it doesn’t tally without the enactment of back-end tech workers. “We person robust plans successful spot to guarantee that we are capable to fulfill our ngo and service our readers,” Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha told The Washington Post successful October arsenic the menace of the onslaught loomed.

“Our national members and bargaining committee person done everything imaginable to debar this ULP strike,” Kathy Zhang—a portion seat of the Tech Guild and a elder analytics manager astatine The New York Times—said successful a connection astir the strike. “But absorption is much consenting to hazard our predetermination sum than they are to hold to a just woody with its workers. They person near america nary prime but to show the powerfulness of our labour connected the picket line. Nevertheless, we basal acceptable to bargain and get this declaration done.”

The Tech Guild is asking that readers not transverse the integer picket line. They privation readers to amusement their enactment by avoiding the cooking app and immoderate of the fashionable NYT Games. Anyone who wants to enactment the strikers much straight tin donate to a GoFundMe which has already raised much than $50,000.

More than 700 Times journalists and Times Guild members signaled their enactment of the Tech Union successful a property release. “We can’t bash our jobs without the Tech Guild,” the journalists said successful their pledge.