AI Emerges as Flashpoint in New York Times Union Talks

Contract negotiations between the New York Times and its union have become the latest battle over the use of AI in newsrooms, widening an impasse between the two sides just as their current agreement is set to expire at the end of the month.

The dispute comes as the news industry grapples with how to utilize AI effectively and ethically, and amid growing concerns the technology could fuel further cuts in a field already decimated by layoffs. Such fears were kicked up this week when the top editor at Cleveland’s Plain Dealer advocated for reporters in some instances to cede writing an AI rewrite specialist, a view that prompted an outcry among journalists on social media.

The union’s current contract expires Feb. 28, and how the Times’ negotiations play out could provide a template for other media unions hashing out AI provisions. The clash between the two sides reached an inflection point on Wednesday when Times management presented the Times Guild, the bargaining unit that represents nearly 1,500 members of the Times newsroom, with an offer that tied two different issues together.

Management agreed to accept the Guild’s proposal on disability accommodations — which outlines how the Times must respond to employee accommodation requests — if the Guild accepted a single-paragraph proposal on AI, which establishes a committee for the two sides to continue discussing generative AI’s potential impact on the newsroom. The language in both proposals is similar to sections in the Tech Guild contract, a Times Guild sister union.

The union did not react well to the proposal.

“They’re holding disability accommodations hostage to undermine our A.I. propsal [sic],” the Guild wrote to members on Wednesday after bargaining ended.

In a statement to TheWrap, the Times said that “the News Guild” — the parent union of the Times Guild — “proposed that we adopt language that we recently negotiated and agreed to as part of a contract for one of their other NYT units.”

“We believe the same logic applies to both proposals and offered that compromise as a way to expeditiously resolve these two issues,” the Times said.

In January, the Guild proposed adding a new AI section to the contract outlining how the company can use the technology, and mandating the Times disclose AI use in stories and permit staffers to remove their bylines if not, among other provisions. The Guild also proposed the company create a fund to distribute 25% of any net revenue the Times makes from licensing content to third-party AI companies back to employees. 

Times management rejected that proposal.

The Times’ principles on AI state it should use the technology “responsibly” and emphasize that journalism remains “a human endeavor.” It does note that it seeks “flexibility to integrate new tools and adapt our workflows, in the same way that we brought computers into our workflows and journalism.”

Isaac Aronow, an editor on the Times’ Games section and a member of the bargaining committee, told TheWrap that AI represents one of the Guild’s five core negotiation pillars along with raises, remote work flexibility, supplementing a company health-care fund and keeping union work within the Guild. 

“Newspaper management across the country is finding ways to use AI to fire journalists, lower the quality of the product and generally it’s a huge, huge threat,” Aronow said. “Our members are very concerned about it.”

Managing editors Carolyn Ryan and Marc Lacey told staffers in a memo on Wednesday that they were “puzzled” by the Guild’s negotiation tactics and complained that it “flooded the negotiations with new issues in every session.”

Aronow disagreed and said management would have “complete control” over how the company dealt with AI should a deal pass without restrictions as to how the Times may implement it.

“People come to the Times because they trust our journalism and they trust our work,” he said. “In my experience, they don’t really trust AI. So by putting AI into the product to an uncontrolled extent, we risk losing the trust of people who come to us for hard news.”

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