New York Times Parent Company Interfered With Union Efforts

By Chris Walker, Truthout

The parent company of The New York Times has illegally restricted its tech employees from promoting unionization efforts, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently alleged.

In a complaint filed to an administrative court, the NLRB said that The New York Times Company “has been interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed” under federal labor laws.

The complaint, which was filed by the Communications Workers of America’s NewsGuild (TNG-CWA) last June, alleges that the company violated federal labor laws and protections by ordering its employees not to share images demonstrating support of unionizing tech workers. NLRB officials agreed with this assertion late in December, and have forwarded the complaint to the administrative court, where it will be heard in March of this year.

Among a number of complaints made by TNG-CWA, the union alleged that the company refused to allow tech workers to use pro-union images as their avatars in chat groups and restricted the sharing of pro-union imagery within other internal online services. In an attempt to justify its actions, The New York Times Co. wrongly claimed that these workers were technically managers because they oversaw interns.

The company still maintains that it hasn’t done anything wrong.