{"id":125863,"date":"2021-02-12T15:30:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T20:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=125863"},"modified":"2021-02-12T15:42:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T20:42:28","slug":"union-or-woke-activist-group-new-york-times-employees-raise-questions-about-guilds-role-in-recent-dismissals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/union-or-woke-activist-group-new-york-times-employees-raise-questions-about-guilds-role-in-recent-dismissals\/","title":{"rendered":"Union or Woke Activist Group? New York Times Employees Raise Questions About Guild\u2019s Role in Recent Dismissals"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Funion-or-woke-activist-group-new-york-times-employees-raise-questions-about-guilds-role-in-recent-dismissals%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=125863&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-525550436-e1612892850838.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>&#8220;Jo<\/span><span>urnalists are not expendable,&#8221; the<\/span> <em><span>New York Times<\/span><\/em> <span>Guild<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NYTimesGuild\/status\/1276192475678375936\"><span>declared<\/span><\/a> <span>in July. &#8220;<\/span><span>Employers are attempting to undermine our collective strength and security.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But not every member of the Guild believes the union is practicing what it preaches. The union\u2019s handling of star science reporter Donald McNeil\u2019s recent &#8220;resignation,&#8221; according to several current and former<\/span> <em><span>Times<\/span><\/em> <span>staffers, is the latest indication that the Guild has been hijacked by a group of woke activists that is not only reluctant to defend unpopular members\u2014but which frequently pressures management to fire them.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"posts-content__category-widget md:hidden -ml-4 -mr-4 my-8 px-4 py-6 bg-gray-100\">\n<h4 class=\"mt-0 text-red-600 font-medium font-sans uppercase\">Recent Stories in Media<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>&#8220;The people I\u2019m supposed to go to if I have a problem with management are the same ones who might try to get me fired,&#8221; one union member told the<\/span> <em><span>Washington Free Beacon<\/span><\/em><span>.<\/span> <span>&#8220;The union is the last place I would go for support.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It seems counterintuitive for a union, designed explicitly to protect workers and ensure managers do not apply standards capriciously, to weigh in against its own members. The Guild has done so by exploiting provisions in U.S. labor law that protect workers who voice concerns about workplace &#8220;safety&#8221; \u2014 and which help unions force out those who &#8220;harm&#8221; that safety.<\/p>\n<p><span>McNeil\u2019s departure provides a window into the dynamics at work.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 45-year<\/span> <em><span>Times<\/span><\/em> <span>veteran was an active union member. So were many of the employees who signed a letter to<\/span> <em><span>Times<\/span><\/em> <span>management demanding a more thorough investigation of his conduct after an initial probe led to a wrist slap. None of them publicly called for his firing, but the staffers issued their demand\u2014framed as a matter of &#8220;accountability&#8221;\u2014after management had already disciplined McNeil, creating pressure for harsher sanctions.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That pressure didn\u2019t come directly from the union, which never issued an institutional call for McNeil\u2019s removal, so it didn\u2019t run afoul of labor laws that require unions to represent their members. But it was<\/span> <span>members of the union, including<\/span> <em><span>Times<\/span><\/em> <span>reporter Davey Alba and cultural critic Amanda Hess, according to several people familiar with the pressure campaign, who were leading the charge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;It is a charade to call this \u2018accountability,\u2019&#8221; one source said of the crusade, emphasizing that McNeil had already been held accountable when Dean Baquet, the paper\u2019s executive editor, reprimanded him months earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Though McNeil technically resigned, Guild members made legal arguments for his firing.<\/span> <span>Alba<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daveyalba\/status\/1358798656355336200\"><span>argued<\/span><\/a> <span>that the union only has an &#8220;obligation to *represent* people in discipline and to follow due process.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;<\/span><span>We are not defense attorneys,&#8221; Alba said in a tweet on Monday. &#8220;If someone harassed someone or acted in a matter deemed unacceptable, it can still count as cause.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Alba did not respond to requests for comment. Through a&nbsp;<em>Times<\/em> spokesman, Hess said the characterization of her involvement is &#8220;completely false.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She has no idea what you&#8217;re talking about,&#8221; spokesman Jordan Cohen said.<\/p>\n<p><span>The Guild had already issued a<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daveyalba\/status\/1358804306074476547\"><span>statement<\/span><\/a><span>&nbsp;denouncing McNeil. &#8220;There\u2019s never a moment when harmful racist rhetoric is acceptable,&#8221; it said, in reference to McNeil\u2019s using the n-word in a conversation about racial slurs. &#8220;While we continue to advocate for our members, we do so recognizing that we are one community that must work together to eradicate and fight injustice.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Reading between the lines, McNeil\u2019s union was suggesting he deserved to be fired, and that it wouldn\u2019t support him if he was.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The campaign against McNeil also alleged that he had done harm. &#8220;Any reasonable observer knows he understood the power the slur contains and how harmful it can be,&#8221; a letter signed by 150<\/span> <em><span>Times<\/span><\/em> <span>staffers read. &#8220;[T]he company should now take the opportunity to review its policies and better assess the harm behavior like Mr. McNeil\u2019s causes.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The appeal to harm and safety was deliberate. Under the<\/span> <span>National Labor Relations Act, businesses<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlrb.gov\/about-nlrb\/rights-we-protect\/your-rights\/employee-rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>can\u2019t discipline<\/span><\/a> <span>their employees for discussing workplace safety concerns. That gave<\/span> <span>management less room to resist the pressure campaign, while giving the union legal room to mount it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Unions aren\u2019t obligated to defend anybody they deem to have endangered the welfare of other members, a labor lawyer told the<\/span> <em><span>Free Beacon<\/span><\/em><span>.<\/span> <span>If McNeil\u2019s behavior caused harm, there was cause to fire him; if there was cause to fire him, the union wasn\u2019t legally obligated to press his case.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The union isn\u2019t just failing to protect its members, in other words. It is exploiting U.S. labor law to oust them more efficiently.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A representative for the union, Bill Baker, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p><span>Similar dynamics were on display over the summer, when<\/span> <span>union activists<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/isabeltogoh\/2020\/06\/04\/this-puts-black-staff-in-danger-new-york-times-writers-revolt-over-tom-cottons-op-ed\/?sh=65929bd34a16\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>said<\/span><\/a> <span>that an op-ed by Republican senator Tom Cotton (Ark.) arguing for the deployment of federal troops to quell riots put black staff &#8220;in danger.&#8221; Its publication, the Guild<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nyguild\/status\/1268362511956545536\/photo\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>alleged<\/span><\/a><span>, was &#8220;an irresponsible choice&#8221; by the opinion desk, and &#8220;jeopardize[d] our journalists ability to work in the field safely.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Far from abandoning class warfare, then, the<\/span> <em><span>Times<\/span><\/em> <span>Guild has leaned into it. But it increasingly represents the interests of a new class, with new sensibilities and sensitivities. In 1947, the Guild<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyguild.org\/about-the-new-york-times\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>purged<\/span><\/a> <span>communists from union office; today, it purges old-school liberals\u2014many of whom are working class.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Staffers from blue-collar backgrounds<\/span> <span>tend to see the union as a safeguard of workers\u2019 rights, not a forum for cultural grievance, sources said. But more privileged staffers tend to see it the other way around. For them, one former staffer told the<\/span> <em><span>Free Beacon<\/span><\/em><span>, the union is<\/span> <span>&#8220;more as a political badge than a commitment to the rights of workers.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Privilege is not a rarity in legacy newsrooms. Nearly 52 percent of<\/span> <em><span>Times<\/span><\/em> <span>staff writers<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.journalofexpertise.org\/articles\/volume1_issue1\/JoE_2018_1_1_Wai_Perina.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>graduated<\/span><\/a> <span>from elite universities,<\/span> <span>and many come from wealthy families. With a few exceptions, most of these writers are unionized\u2014meaning that many members of the Guild don\u2019t need the job security it\u2019s supposed to provide.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The result, some sources said, is that defending workers has given way to defenestrating them, especially when they violate the taboos of well-to-do progressives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The turmoil at the<\/span> <em><span>Times<\/span><\/em> <span>is thus a class war as much as a culture war. On one side are old-school, often middle-class staffers like McNeil with a commitment to objective journalism; on the other are a group of more affluent young staffers with a commitment to anti-racism, which has compelled them to turn against their colleagues. The<\/span> <em><span>New York Times<\/span><\/em> <span>union isn\u2019t just obliterating objectivity; it is also smashing solidarity.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"my-8 hide-print\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1526555381173-4\" class=\"mobile-250 desktop-90\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Journalists are not expendable,&#8221; the New York Times Guild declared in July. &#8220;Employers are attempting to undermine our collective strength and security.&#8221; But not every member of the Guild believes &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893321,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5327,3670,4126,4701,5558,3859],"class_list":["post-125863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-activist","tag-group","tag-times","tag-union","tag-woke","tag-york"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}