WASHINGTON. More than 1,000 reporters and other New York Times employees began a 24-hour strike, the first of its kind at the flagship newspaper in more than 40 years. The cause is the lack of agreement for the renewal of the contract after it expired in March 2021. Among the nodes the increase in salaries and remote work policies. “It’s never an easy decision to refuse to do work you love, but our members are keen to do what it takes to achieve a better newsroom for everyone,” tweeted New York’s NewsGuild, the Big Apple’s historic union of journalists.
“It is disappointing that they take this extreme action when we are not at an impasse” in the negotiations, commented a NYT spokeswoman, Danielle Rhoades Ha. It is unclear if and how today’s news coverage will be affected by the strike, given that members of the live-news desk, responsible for breaking news, also join the strike. Newspaper employees are scheduled to rally in the next few hours outside the newspaper’s offices near Times Square.