Strike Alert! District 1 Members Walk the Picket Lines Alongside Striking News Guild-CWA Members

After twenty months of bargaining, over 1,000 workers at the New York Times and members of the NewsGuild of New York (TNG-CWA Local 31003), walked off the job on Thursday, December 8th, for a one-day strike - the first in the New York Times history since 1978.

Despite many long months of bargaining and the union bargaining committee's willingness to stay at the table for as long as it would take to reach a deal and avert the walkout, the company has failed again and again to bargain in good faith, reach a fair contract agreement with the workers, and meet their demands, and walked away from the table Wednesday evening, refusing to return.

CWA members and retirees throughout New York City came out in droves on Thursday afternoon to support the striking workers outside of the New York Times building in midtown Manhattan.

"You may be 1,100 - as one of the other speakers said, you're like a small town," said CWA District 1 VP Dennis Trainor, addressing the huge crowd during the rally​. "But you're a big city! CWA is behind you, the labor movement is entirely behind you!"

While the company is telling Wall Street what a successful operation they have, many workers are forced to get second jobs to make ends meet - even as the Times they’re pays their executives millions of dollars in salaries and benefits​ and spends hundreds of millions of dollars buying back their own stock. Raising the base salary for workers to $65,000 would cost less than the increase in the CEO's compensation alone.

"The New York Times is a leader in journalism because of YOU!" said Susan DeCarava​, President of the News Guild of New York. "We are one union, one news outlet, one bunch of workers who are demanding our rights and our ability to work and be paid fairly for the labor that we contribute."

You can help! Click here to send an email to the New York Times telling them: Give Your Employees the Contract They Deserve!​

Read more about the one-day strike and the ongoing contract negotiations here.