The union representing the New York Times newsroom filed a grievance Thursday challenging the company’s announcement that it plans to shutter its standalone sports desk and rely on the Athletic for its sports coverage in print and online.
The Washington Post reports the grievance, sent from the NewsGuild to Times executives, accused the company of violating the union contract by “unilaterally removing bargaining unit work and by assigning such work to non-bargaining unit employees, namely the employees of The Athletic, a company owned by the New York Times.”
In a statement Thursday, the guild said: “The Times Guild has jurisdiction over journalism jobs at The Times, yet the company is claiming it has the right to subcontract to itself and have nonunion workers do union work without the same job protections, wages and other benefits we have fought so hard to secure. These claims are preposterous on their face and a brazen attempt at union-busting.”
The guild is not challenging the dissolution of the sports desk but rather that the Times can rely on non-guild labor to produce its sports coverage, arguing that the Times is violating its collective bargaining agreement by subcontracting to itself.
The Athletic is a subscription sports publication the Times bought last year for $550 million. Its newsroom of around 400 writers and editors is not unionized.
The Times has 20 days to respond to the grievance. If the Times denies it, which is expected, the guild has 45 days to file for an arbitration hearing. The arbitrator could rule that Times sports coverage is guild work, which would mean its sports coverage couldn’t be subcontracted to the Athletic and the Times newsroom would have to produce the Times’s sports coverage. If the arbitrator were to side with the Times, it could set a precedent that the Times can outsource the work of a section to non-guild workers.
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