New York Times Tech Union Strikes Day Before Election | New York Times

The New York Times Tech Guild, which represents hundreds of the outlet's tech employees, went on strike Monday morning – a day before the U.S. presidential election.

The threat of a strike has been lingering at the company for months, raising questions about a possible disruption to election coverage. The newspaper giant confirmed in a statement that members would begin protesting outside the Times headquarters from 9 a.m. daily.

The strike is the result of a September 10 vote in which employees decided to go on strike at a critical time – election week – if an agreement was not reached. With the largest subscriber base of any American newspaper, Times readers will be looking for comprehensive election coverage in large numbers.

The Tech Guild called for a strike after increasingly intense negotiations between the guild and Times management failed to produce a contract agreement.

Kait Hoehne, a senior software engineer at the Times and a member of the Tech Guild, said the group hoped to avoid a strike as negotiations continued late Sunday night. Ultimately, however, tech employees felt they had no choice after management failed to agree on key issues, the Washington Post reported.

“We love our jobs and look forward to doing them,” Hoehne told the Post. “But we haven’t seen enough movement from management and we’ve been negotiating for far too long.”

The Tech Guild's approximately 600 members are responsible for operating the back-end systems that enable the newspaper's comprehensive digital operations. The strike could impact not only the newspaper's ability to cover the presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, but also the hundreds of House races and dozens of Senate races across the U.S. that will decide who wins the election will secure control of Washington by 2025.

But the strike could have implications that go far beyond just election reporting. The Tech Guild is made up of software developers, product managers, data analysts and designers who oversee several of the newspaper's digital properties, including live blogs, mobile push notifications, games and the famous election pin.

“They have left us no choice but to demonstrate the power of our work on the picket lines,” Kathy Zhang, the guild unit president, said in the statement, according to the Times. “Nevertheless, we are ready to negotiate and get this contract across the finish line.”

Hoehne told the Post that elections drive more traffic to the site, which “stresses the system.” Without experienced engineers to handle the sudden surge in additional traffic, “teams could be severely impacted,” she said.

The guild is asking readers to honor their picket lines by boycotting the Times' selection of games, including Wordle and the daily digital crossword, and avoiding other digital extensions such as the Cooking app.

Annie Shields, a campaign director for the News Guild of New York, encouraged people to sacrifice their streaks on the hugely popular Wordle and Connections games to support the strike.

“Enjoy the archive today while you can!” she wrote in a post on X.