Big Win for Times Workers

This is a significant victory for the workers of the New York Times.

The agreement, if ratified, will give union members immediate salary increases of up to 12.5 percent to cover the last two years and 2023, and will raise the required minimum salary to $65,000, up from about $37,500. The previous contract expired in March 2021, and union members have not received contractual raises since 2020.

Under the contract, the median salary for reporters in the union would be about $160,000.

The union negotiating the deal, which is part of the NewsGuild of New York, represents nearly 1,500 employees in the newsroom, advertising and other areas of the company. More than 1,800 people work in The Times’s newsroom.

The union said members would vote to ratify the five-year deal in the coming week.

“This deal is a victory for all the union members who fought for a fair contract that rewards our hard work and sacrifice,” Bill Baker, The New York Times Guild’s unit chair, said in a statement. “It shows that the company cannot take us for granted and must be held accountable.”

First, there’s nothing more bad faith from an employer than refusing to sit down and hammer out a new contract and the fact that the workers had labored without a contract for over two years is just ridiculous.

Second, the idea of paying someone working in New York for the New York Times $37,500 is so beyond ridiculous. Yes, I work for arguably the world’s prestige paper and I have 4 roommates in my one bedroom flat! Heck, that minimum raise to $65,000 hardly means even a middle class lifestyle in the city, but at least it isn’t actual poverty.