New York Times staffers rally outside headquarters demanding fair contract and AI protections
New York Times staffers got up from their workspaces inside the paper’s New York City headquarters on Wednesday and gathered outside to rally against management, demanding a fair contract and insisting the company puts profits over people.
The event, dubbed "Rally for a Fair Contract," came as the Times Guild is fighting for protections against artificial intelligence, guaranteed hybrid work, affordable health care, pay increases that match the rising cost of living and keeping work within the union.
Members of the Times Guild, which represents more than 1,500 editorial, advertising, and support staff workers, are furious that their contract expired on Feb. 28 and a resolution doesn’t appear close. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the paper on Tuesday after "Fair Contract Now" signs that were placed on desks throughout the office were removed, which the Guild called a violation of the federally protected rights of union members, although a Times insider said it was an honest mistake by the cleaning crew.
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New York Times senior editor Jim Luttrell, also the unit chair of the Times Guild, believes rank-and-file employees are simply "not happy" with management.
"This company is often ‘do as I say, not as I do’ and they are very much a corporation when it comes to dealing with organized labor. They want to increase their profits even more, but they don’t want to share those profits with us," Luttrell told Fox News Digital.
"We know we make this place what it is," Luttrell added. "This was an escalation today… it’s to tell the company that, ‘You’ve been dismissive of our needs and our wants and desires, and we’re not going away.’"
Luttrell, who has been at the Times for 31 years, said AI is seen as "a threat to our jobs," and unionized employees want protections in writing. He said management is on the same page when it comes to what the protections should be, but the Gray Lady brass doesn’t want to "put it in a contract."
"We know we want to prepare for the worst and make sure our people are protected," Luttrell said.
Luttrell also believes staffers from The Athletic, a sports news site the Times acquired in 2022, should be part of the Times Guild. He said Athletic staffers had petitioned to join the union to no avail.
"They want to take jobs out of the union and water down our power," Luttrell said.
"The Times bought a separate company; they then disbanded their own sports desk and now uses that company as their sports department," he continued. "They’re doing the same work that all the other journalists here do that the sports journalists did here before. There is no reason they shouldn’t be in the union."
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A Times insider also noted that staffers affected by the disbanding of the sports desk in 2023 received new job offers and no jobs were lost by the decision. In January 2025, Athletic publisher David Perpich addressed unionization and favored a separate bargaining unit within the NewsGuild over joining the existing Times Guild union.
"We strongly believe that the best approach is to have The Athletic’s journalists form a separate bargaining unit within the NewsGuild, not to have them absorbed into the Times unit, as was proposed in the letter. We are prepared to voluntarily recognize such a separate unit, as we did with the Wirecutter Union," Perpich wrote. "The Athletic’s newsroom is completely independent from The Times’s, with separate leadership."
Luttrell was pleased with the turnout for the rally, particularly for a sweltering hot day when the temperature topped 90 degrees.
He said middle management is typically "sympathetic" to the Guild, but it’s up to high-powered executives to strike a deal.
"If they want to come to the table and truly negotiate, we’re ready to do that," Luttrell said.
A New York Times spokesperson said the Guild has been slow-walking the process.
"We've had a fair contract proposal on the table since last October. It's been 225 days without a response from the Guild on our wage proposals. A deal will get done when the Guild is ready to engage in serious negotiations on the major issues," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
NewsGuild of NY president Susan DeCarava, Sunday designer Andrea Zagata, Metro reporter Ed Shanahan and reporter Jenny Vrentas joined Luttrell as speakers at the rally.
"It is unacceptable that The Times masthead is continuing to put the shareholders first over our members, the people who are the reason for the Times’ success," DeCarava said. "We are united in our fight for a contract that acknowledges the value of our members’ work and will continue to hold the line for ethical, human-powered journalism at the Times."