TAKING ACTION: The New York Times Guild files grievance over harassment, discrimination of members

NEW YORK – Times management violated the New York Times Guild’s contract when it harassed members and discriminated against them during its investigation into an alleged leak of newsroom information about “The Daily” to the Intercept.

In an email distributed to its membership on Friday, The Times Guild strongly condemned management’s targeted interrogation of members of the Middle Eastern North African (MENA) Employee Resource Group. Susan DeCarava, the president of The NewsGuild of New York, also sent an email on Friday to Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger.

On Saturday, Times management sent a response in an email to all newsroom employees in which management asserted, among other things: “The inquiry is focused narrowly on how internal materials were shared with outsiders.”

This is not true. 

On Tuesday, The Times Guild filed a grievance on behalf of the union, citing management’s intimidation of certain employees during hostile, aggressive interviews that transgressed far outside the scope of any investigation into potential leaks. Members faced extensive questions about their involvement in MENA ERG events and discussions, and about their views of the Times’s Middle East coverage. Group leaders were asked to turn over the group’s membership list, as well as the names of all New York Times colleagues who had “raised concerns” — in private discussions — about a published New York Times article.

Multiple members were also asked to hand over their personal communications, on their personal devices and digital accounts, with other employees about shared workplace concerns — conversations that had nothing to do with the internal materials specific to “The Daily” that are the stated focus of this inquiry. 

“We cannot allow the company to target our members, and this grievance is a first step toward protecting them,” said Bill Baker, Times Guild unit chair. “This investigation has been incredibly damaging, creating an environment where no one feels safe to raise internal concerns, even through the designated channels for doing so. For us as a union, we can’t let that stand.”