An order to come to the office for at least three days a week is being defied by more than a thousand New York Times staff members.
Staff at the world-famous news organization say the pressure of high inflation means they can't return to the office.
Tom Coffey, a member of the contract committee for the Times' union, told the New York Post "people are livid" and claimed that the 1,300 employees who have refused to come back to work are particularly worried about commuter costs.
Haley Willis, who works on video investigations for the paper, tweeted on Monday that “the @nytimes is giving employees branded lunch boxes this week as a return-to-office perk.
"We want respect and a fair contract instead — so I’m working from home this week along with 1,300 of my @NYTimesGuild and @NYTGuildTech colleagues, with support from @WirecutterUnion.”
The Times is reportedly offering a four percent pay increase and requesting that employees abide by the offered hybrid option.
But The Guild is reportedly demanding an eight percent overall pay increase as well as the continuation of the remote-work option.
Management "continue[s] to believe that a hybrid work environment best suits the New York Times at this time," a Times spokesman told the Post.
A report that found "the disparities" between white and non-white employees' performance ratings were "statistically significant in every year for which the company provided data" was released last month, and the New York Times Guild immediately accused management of doing this.
In 2020, no black employees received the highest possible score, while in 2021 “being Hispanic reduced the odds of receiving a high-performance evaluation score by 61 percent, being Black reduced the odds by 47 percent, and being Asian reduced them by 34 percent.”
A Times spokesman told National Review at the time that “having an equitable performance evaluation system is one of the most important levers we have to ensure we are developing and supporting the growth of our people in a fair manner. We’re committed to a performance evaluation system that is fair and equitable, and we have been working to continuously improve it.”
