New York Times tech workers vote to unionize!

New York, New York – Tech workers at the New York Times won union representation in a landslide victory on Thursday!

Tech workers at the New York Times voted 404-88 in favor of unionizing.
Tech workers at the New York Times voted 404-88 in favor of unionizing.  © IMAGO / Pacific Press Agency

The workers voted 404-88 in favor of a union.

Workers first asked the Times to voluntarily recognize their union in April 2021. When that request was denied, the case went to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a formal election.

With their big win, the Times Tech Guild has become the largest tech union in the US with collective bargaining rights.

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It will represent over 600 designers, data analysts, software engineers, product managers, and more.

"We’re just elated and really soaking in what this means, not only for us as tech workers at The Times and for The New York Times but also for the tech industry as a whole," Nozlee Samadzadeh, a senior software engineer, told ... the New York Times. "I think this is going to be the start of a wave of organizing in the tech industry."

Samadzadeh says tech workers want to see changes "similar to what the newsroom unit has been fighting for – issues around pay, diversity and equity, a strong contract to make our workplace more fair."

The tech workers will be represented by NewsGuild-CWA, which also represents the paper's editors and journalists.

Supporters of the workers' organizing efforts have accused the Times' of trying to put obstacles in their path. The NLRB said in January that the Times had violated the law by stopping employees from showing union support – allegations the paper denied.

The election was the second labor victory in NYC in two days, after REI workers in Soho overwhelmingly voted to unionize.

Cover photo: IMAGO / Pacific Press Agency

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