More than 1,100 New York Times staffers hold one-day strike

More than 1,100 New York Times reporters and editors started a one-day strike on Thursday after about 40 union bargaining sessions since March 2021 did not result in a contract.

Over 1,800 people work in the paper's newsroom, and those participating in the walkout are New York Times Guild members who signed a 24-hour strike pledge, the Times reported.

After the union's contract with the paper expired in March 2021, negotiators have been unable to agree on salaries, benefits and other issues.

The newspaper's "wage proposal still fails to meet the economic moment, lagging far behind both inflation and the average rate of wage gains in the U.S.," the union, part of the larger NewsGuild of New York, said Wednesday in an announcement about the strike, which is the paper's first since 1981.

Comments by Times Executive Director Joe Kahn suggest the union and its members have taken an excessive measure.

"Strikes typically happen when talks deadlock," he said. "That is not where we are today. While the company and the NewsGuild remain apart on a number of issues, we continue to trade proposals and make progress toward an agreement."