The parent company of The New York Times has illegally restricted its tech employees from promoting unionization efforts, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently alleged.
In a complaint filed to an administrative court, the NLRB said that The New York Times Company “has been interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed” under federal labor laws.
The complaint, which was filed by the Communications Workers of America’s NewsGuild (TNG-CWA) last June, alleges that the company violated federal labor laws and protections by ordering its employees not to share images demonstrating support of unionizing tech workers. NLRB officials agreed with this assertion late in December, and have forwarded the complaint to the administrative court, where it will be heard in March of this year.
Among a number of complaints made by TNG-CWA, the union alleged that the company refused to allow tech workers to use pro-union images as their avatars in chat groups and restricted the sharing of pro-union imagery within other internal online services. In an attempt to justify its actions, The New York Times Co. wrongly claimed that these workers were technically managers because they oversaw interns.
The company still maintains that it hasn’t done anything wrong.
“We strongly disagree with the union’s allegations about the supervisory status of certain technology employees and welcome the opportunity to explain our position to the board,” company spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said in a statement.
If the administrative court agrees with the NLRB in March, the effect of their decision would be minimal. At most, the judges can order the company to change its policies and allow for such images to be shared among employees, regardless of whether tech workers oversee interns or not. The judges can take very few punitive actions against the company, if any, unless the company ignores the judges’ orders later on.
Still, it’s revealing that The New York Times Co. is refusing to abide by labor laws and attempting to quell union promotion among its tech workers.
As the New York Times Tech Guild noted on Twitter, the NLRB offered the company a settlement option that would allow all parties involved to avoid a trial later this year; this option would simply require the company to post “a notice with the promise not to break the law again.”
“Management has refused this option, opting to spend more money on legal fees to fight the decision rather than posting this straightforward notice,” the New York Times Tech Guild said in its post.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy