美国国家公共电台 NPR--New York Times employees engaged in its largest newsroom work stoppage in decades

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New York Times employees engaged in its largest newsroom work stoppage in decades

Transcript¹

More than 1,000 New York Times newsroom union members went out on strike for a full day in the biggest work action at the paper in decades.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

More than 1,100 members of the union representing the journalists at The New York Times walked out on their jobs yesterday. They picketed² the paper's Manhattan headquarters. It was the largest newsroom work stoppage in decades, forcing editors to scramble³ to put out news coverage⁴. Here's NPR's David Folkenflik.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE⁵: There was a lot of international news on The Times website today. Most reporters abroad aren't part of the union. Some articles carried the names of editors who hadn't reported a story on their own in years. Others simply didn't have any bylines⁶ - that is the names of the people who wrote them - notably⁷ including the article about the newsroom walkout itself.

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JON SCHLEUSS: We don't want to go on strike, but management isn't listening to us. This is the bravest thing that we can do.

FOLKENFLIK: National NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss addressed scores of workers picketing⁸ outside the paper's main offices.

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SCHLEUSS: By withholding⁹ our labor¹⁰, we are sending a clear message.

FOLKENFLIK: The message being, if not now, when? The Times is flush, as its own CEO's recent remarks suggest.

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MEREDITH KOPIT LEVIEN: We made steady progress in the quarter for becoming the essential subscription¹¹ for every English-speaking person seeking to understand and engage with the world.

FOLKENFLIK: This was Meredith Kopit Levien in a recent call with investors¹² and analysts¹³. Unlike local newspapers, The Times is flourishing, adding digital subscribers by the hundreds of thousands.

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KOPIT LEVIEN: We did so by advancing the three pillars of our strategy - leading in news, helping¹⁴ people make the most of their lives and passion, and putting those ideas together in a bundle that makes The Times indispensable in the daily lives of millions more people.

FOLKENFLIK: The two sides are far apart on a host of issues, though there's been growing consensus¹⁵ on several items as the walkout neared. The key issue separating them - the union's members want a 5.5% increase for each of four years, in part to make up for years without a raise. The paper says it can offer about half that. Late Wednesday night, Levien said the union's full suite¹⁶ of demands would require an extra $100 million, preventing it from investing in ways to preserve the newspaper's journalism¹⁷. The union did not bring the papers to its knees yesterday but demonstrated a sense of solidarity¹⁸ as it embarks¹⁹ on further negotiations²⁰.

David Folkenflik, NPR News.