Unionized New York Times staffers have been locked in a
nasty contract battle with company management for the past 18 months now.
Joe Pompeop at capitalnewyork.com reports at issue between
the Times Company and the Newspaper Guild are proposed contracts that Guild
members say would result in a costly reduction in wages and benefits.
The acrimony, publicized by an agressive ongoing campaign
from the Guild, has become a somewhat thorny public relations issue for the
Times, which over the past year has also come under scrutiny as a result of the
termination and replacement of previous C.E.O. Janet Robinson. (Guild members
were none too pleased to learn that her exit package was worth $24 million.)
Monday's walkout came on the heels of a proposed
"overall $12,000 annual cut, in real dollars, to our compensation
package," according to a letter circulated to Guild members this morning.
A little after 3:30 p.m., hundreds of Times journalists
wearing plain white "Believe us" stickers began streaming out of the
Times Building's 40th street entrance, where they congregated before walking
around the corner en masse. They passed the main entrance that bears the
paper's logo before looping around 41st street and returning to work.
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