After years of negotiations, the NYT Tech Guild reaches an accord with leadership.

A tentative contract agreement was reached by the New York Times Tech Guild with management on Wednesday, following a month-long strike during election week.

The Times Tech Guild, represented by the NewsGuild of New York, reached a three-year contract after striking for a week in November over unfair labor practices.

The Times Tech Guild, a bargaining unit of The NewsGuild of New York and the largest union of tech workers with collective bargaining rights in the country, has announced a three-year agreement.

"Kathy Zhang, a Senior Analytics Manager at The New York Times and unit chair of the Tech Guild, expressed her excitement about reaching an agreement that guarantees job protections, workplace flexibility, and annual raises for their members. She stated that these first contract wins have set a strong foundation for future job protections that will be built upon for generations. Zhang expressed her pride in being part of organizing the union and serving on the first bargaining committee, calling it an honor of a lifetime."

In early November, the union's members resumed work after a week-long strike during which they were unable to reach an agreement with management.

The unionization of software developers, project managers, and graphic designers at The New York Times, along with other tech workers at SEGA, Meow Wolf, NPR, Activision Blizzard, and Alphabet, has come to an end after more than two years of negotiations. This marks the conclusion of a landslide union election held in March 2022, which solidified their unionization. The group organized as part of CODE-CWA, or the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees.

Goran Svorcan-Merola, a senior software engineer at The Times and a member of the Tech Guild's bargaining committee, expressed his excitement about finally implementing the protections they have been fighting for in recent years.

"We were able to really push leadership to give us what we're worth," he said. "In terms of attitudes towards management, I have to say, some of their positions have been unfortunate. But ultimately, we are looking to work with one another on this."

He stated that they aim to have a fruitful three years while continuing to advocate for their members.

The new contract offers enhanced job security with "just cause" protections, guaranteed wage increases of up to 8.25%, prioritization of wage increases for the lowest paid members, additional compensation for on-call work, protections for workers on visas, flexible hybrid work schedules, and transparency protections for career growth, performance reviews, and other workplace issues. Tech Guild members will vote on ratification of their contract on Thursday, Dec. 19th.

Tech Guild members created their own games site that amassed more than a half million page views and more than 320,000 active users during the strike, instead of foregoing games operated by tech workers, including Wordle and Connections, or using the Cooking app.

"Our Tech Guild members have shown what happens when workers unite to fight for their labor value through this contract," Susan DeCarava, President of The NewsGuild of New York stated. "We not only secured a first contract that set new standards for workers at The New York Times, but we also established a strong foundation for the future of tech workers when they organize and negotiate collectively."