The New York Times Tech Guild and management have finalized a three-year contract, concluding negotiations that included a strike during the 2024 election week. This landmark agreement marks the first contract for the Tech Guild, the nation's largest union of tech workers with collective bargaining rights, which is affiliated with The NewsGuild of New York.

Kathy Zhang, Senior Analytics Manager at The New York Times and unit chair of the Tech Guild, expressed pride in the agreement, highlighting its provisions for "just cause" protections, workplace flexibility, and annual raises. She views this contract as establishing a solid foundation for future job security.

Members of The New York Times news division stood in solidarity with tech employees on strike during Election Day 2024. (Fox News Digital)

New York Times employees protesting in front of the entrance in New York City. (Fox News Digital)

New York Times tech worker strike (Fox News)

The agreement concludes over two years of negotiations, which commenced after the unit overwhelmingly voted to unionize in March 2022. This unionization effort aligned with a broader movement of tech workers at companies like SEGA, Meow Wolf, NPR, Activision Blizzard, and Alphabet, organizing under the banner of CODE-CWA (Campaign to Organize Digital Employees).

Goran Svorcan-Merola, a senior software engineer and member of the Tech Guild's bargaining committee, expressed satisfaction with the achieved protections and the potential for a collaborative working relationship with management moving forward.

The new contract guarantees wage increases of up to 8.25%, with a focus on prioritizing raises for the lowest-paid employees. It also includes provisions for on-call compensation, safeguards on variable compensation (stocks and bonuses), enhanced protections for visa holders, flexible hybrid work arrangements, and transparency in career progression, performance evaluations, and other workplace matters. The Tech Guild members will vote to ratify the contract on December 19th.

New York Times tech worker strike (Fox News)

During the strike, many NYT subscribers demonstrated their support by abstaining from using games like Wordle and Connections, or the Cooking app, which are maintained by the tech workers. In response, the Tech Guild launched its own games site, reportedly attracting over half a million page views and more than 320,000 users.

Susan DeCarava, President of The NewsGuild of New York, emphasized the significance of this contract as a testament to collective bargaining and a model for future tech worker organizing.