The Newspaper Guild approved a contract with The New York Times this afternoon, ending months of bumpy negotiations between Guild members and management.
But the mood in the newsroom was one of resignation rather than elation.
“No one is elated,” said Times staff editor Daniel Gold. “It’s how you look at the glass.”
The vote passed with around 472 votes for the contract and 43 against on the print side. On the digital side, there were 49 votes for the contract and 21 votes against. There was one abstention. There are around 1,000 members of the guild on the print side and 100 on the digital, according to Mr. Gold, who was a member of the negotiating committee. But only those in attendance, or those on assignment or sick who had made special accommodation, were eligible to vote. The Washington Bureau voted separately yesterday, passing the contract 36 to 4–but those votes are included in the final tallies.
Both print and digital had to have a majority in order for the contract to pass. Before this round of contract negotiations, the print and digital sides operated under different contracts.
“The newsroom gets that the company has entered a new era of relations at the paper,” Mr. Gold said.
