New York Times tech workers threaten Election Day strike
New York Times tech workers threaten Election Day strike
Hundreds of employees who power the website, mobile app, and election needle are demanding a contract deal.
Management would fold in 24 hours if they threatened to withhold Wordle.
That game must have one of the lowest labor to profit ratios of any product ever made. The interface maybe took a skilled web developer a few days and it has basically no upkeep after that. And it alone is prolly worth hundreds of millions in NYT games subscriptions. Crazy.
It was made by a single dude to play with his partner and then he published and NYT bought it
You don't need a paid subscription though. Only to see the results of the wordle bot, if you care for that.
Source: I play wordle every day
Only 18 months too late
[NYT] says the workers, who are mostly engineers, are already among the highest paid at the company, earning an average salary of $190,000—$40,000 more than journalists in the Times Guild
Why are they striking? 190k is on the higher end even by Silicon Valley standards. (And 40k more than journalists??)
That sounds more like an argument for journalists being better compensated too, rather than saying the software engineers should be happy with less.
someone else's shit sandwich doesn't make mine taste any better.
The journalists should join them if they're also unhappy.
Are sympathy strikes permitted in the US?
They are here and it rules!
Ok, let me explain.
Money is probably the least important thing in a union contract. It's always about rights.
Unionizing is the only way to escape the prostitution-like relationship of paid work. Accepting to being paid more is just accepting being a more expensive prostitute. "Here's $100, now you do what the man says... Ok .. $200?"
No, it's never okay. No amount of money can ever make it okay. You should have the rights to choose how and when you do the thing that you're offering as a paid service. That's why you need a clear contract that outlines all of your rights.
In this case it's about termination without cause. As an employee, you'll want a binding contract, so you can plan ahead. Termination without cause is the employers trick to keep you on a one sided contract in which you'll have to dance like a bear in a Russian circus, while the employer has no obligation to keep you fed once the show is over.
The reason they strike is that the employer has already abused this power.
190k is definitely not on the high end by Silicon Valley-standards: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/san-francisco-bay-area
It's irrelevant to the matter of whether they should strike or not, as well.
From nbcnews…
The [tech] guild says it has been fighting for a contract to secure better wages, hours, benefits and job security, as well as foster diversity, equity and inclusion among the organization’s workforce.
The guild has accused Times management of not bargaining in good faith and making inflammatory decisions, like firing employees without just cause and limiting bargaining time in an effort to delay an agreement.