How infantile are the so-called journalists at The New York Times? Well according to The New York Post, over 1,300 New York Times employees are refusing to return to the office and stop playing pandemic. While most companies have been back in the office for a while now, the pampered employees at The New York Times won’t even return to the office three days a week, not even if they receive a free New York Times branded lunch box!
As part of an ongoing contract dispute between the paper and the News Guild journalists union, “as of Monday, 1,316 Times workers had signed a pledge not to return to the office. This includes 879 members of the News Guild, but also members of the Times Tech Guild and the union for Wirecutter, the paper’s product-recommendation spinoff,” according to The Post.
The paper is even offering to give their childish employees lunch boxes with The New York Times logo on them as a return-to-office perk, yet they still weren’t happy. According to the Post, “One source said that the branded NYT lunch boxes did not have any sandwiches or other lunch food inside. ‘They were empty,’ said one source. ‘And the lunch box had no handles’.”
The @nytimes is giving employees branded lunch boxes this week as a return-to-office perk. We want respect and a fair contract instead — so I’m working from home this week along with 1,300 of my @NYTimesGuild and @NYTGuildTech colleagues, with support from @WirecutterUnion.
— Haley Willis (@heytherehaley) September 12, 2022
According to a spokesperson with the Times, there aren’t a specific number of mandated days of in-person work days but added “we continue to believe that a hybrid work environment best suits the New York Times at this moment.”
In addition to the spat over returning to work, the News Guild is currently negotiating an eight percent pay increase for its members.
The Post adds that “in addition to an 8% raise, the News Guild had been demanding a cost-of-living increase of 5.25% — and insisting that all workers who can work remotely retain that option indefinitely, and with no mandatory return to offices before July 2023. The Post is told that the labor union may soften on the cost-of-living hike.”
If The New York Times had any common sense (which they obviously don’t), they would immediately deunionize the paper and fire the 1,316 employees who won’t come back to work. The pandemic has been over for at least a year and a half. Grow up.
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