The editorial staff at The Athletic announced Monday it has organized with The NewsGuild of New York to become part of the New York Times' newsroom union, The Times Guild.
Now, The Athletic is asking New York Times management to recognize its staffers as part of the union in an email on behalf of about 200 U.S.-based editorial staff to Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, according to a press release shared with Fox News Digital.
"We are proud of all that The Athletic and The New York Times as a whole has accomplished since our 2022 acquisition, and we know that our inclusion in the Times Guild will only further strengthen our work," the letter says.
The New York Times acquired the online sports news outlet in 2022 and while management originally claimed The Athletic’s operations would be separate, they were integrated into the newsroom, the press release said. Times management closed the New York Times sports desk in September 2023 and the work was allocated to Times staff assigned to The Athletic.
Time Guild leaders also sent a statement to management indicating they have their full support for The Athletic’s inclusion in their union.
"We urge the company to recognize what has been true since the company began publishing The Athletic’s work under the banner of The New York Times: We are one newsroom, and our colleagues at The Athletic are Times Guild members," they wrote.
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Katie Strang, a senior investigative writer for The Athletic, is urging New York Times management to include her team in the bargaining unit.
"Over the past several months, we have organized around the principle of preserving what makes The Athletic great — our staff, our work and our loyal readership," she said. "The work we do is union work, and we believe we should be afforded the same benefits and protections as the Times Guild members under their current contract."
If management does not recognize The Athletic’s request to be part of the Times Guild, the union will pursue other legal pathways, according to the press release.
"The Times must recognize these workers as part of the Times Guild," Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York said. "We will not support a two-tier system that disenfranchises workers and undermines our members, nor will we accept management’s charade that The Athletic is a separate entity."
A spokesperson for The New York Times Company told Fox News Digital: "Today we received and are reviewing a request from U.S.-based colleagues in The Athletic’s newsroom to initiate a process to become members of the NewsGuild of New York."
The New York Times Tech Guild reached a tentative contract agreement with management in December, a month after its election week strike. The union's members returned to work in early November following the week-long election strike in which they originally failed to come to an agreement with management.
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The three-year agreement is the first for the Times Tech Guild, which is a bargaining unit of The NewsGuild of New York and the largest union of tech workers with collective bargaining rights in the country.
