Technicians at The New York Times on Thursday voted in favor of certifying their union in the National Labor Council election, making it one of the largest technical unions in America.
Workers voted in favor, 404 to 88, easily reaching the required majority of ballots. Victory means the union, the Times Tech Guild, can begin negotiating a contract with management.
“We’re just excited and really absorbed in what this means, not only for us as technical workers at The Times and The New York Times, but for the technology industry as a whole,” said Nozli Samadzadeh, senior software engineer. “I think this will be the beginning of a wave of organization in the technology industry.”
Ms Samadzadeh said the union wanted to conclude an agreement on issues “similar to what the newsroom is fighting for – issues of pay, diversity and fairness, a strong agreement to make our workplace fairer”.
A spokesman for the Times, Daniel Rhodes Ha, said The Times was looking forward to working with the union to sign a contract.
“We continue to believe that this election process was critical so that our colleagues could learn more about the union, hear both sides of the dispute and ultimately make an informed decision,” she said.
The Times Technical Guild, which represents about 600 software engineers, product managers, designers, data analysts and other workers, asked The Times for voluntary recognition in April. The Times refused, so the issue went to official elections through the Labor Board.
The Labor Board said in a complaint in January that The Times had violated federal workplace law by preventing some employees from showing support for the union. A Times spokesman said at the time that the company did not agree with the allegations.
The Times Tech Guild is represented by NewsGuild of New York, which also represents the editorial staff of The New York Times and Wirecutter, the company’s product review website. In 2019, The Times voluntarily recognized the Wirecutter union.