New York Times Guild Files Grievances Over AI Use for Employee Monitoring

Unionized employees at The New York Times filed two grievances and an unfair labor practice charge against the company, alleging it uses artificial intelligence to surveil and monitor workers. The New York Times Guild and the Times Tech Guild stated that the company's AI practices violate their collective bargaining agreement.

They also said management has not responded to three formal requests for information on AI use sent on March 26, April 22, and May 6.

Harnett, chair of the Tech Guild's Generative

AI committee and a staff software engineer at The Times, said the practice creates an inaccurate picture of members' work. "Using AI to surveil our work violates our contract and creates a skewed, inaccurate picture of our members' work," Harnett said. Harnett added that the work requires human judgment that cannot be assessed by AI analysis and proxy metrics.

Times said the company disagrees with the characterizations in the grievance and will respond through the normal contractual process. The spokeswoman also said the company will respond to the information requests as it has with more than 80 other requests from the Guild in recent years.

York filed a separate unfair labor practice charge on behalf of the Times Guild, which represents more than 1,500 editorial, ad sales, and support staff. Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild of New York, said the Guild is currently bargaining for a new contract and held a rally outside the New York Times Building on May 20.