Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – U.S. labor officers have filed a lawsuit against The New York Times Co accusing them of illegally interfering in the organizing efforts for tech workers by preventing a certain group of workers showing support for unionization.

An Acting Regional Director at the National Labor Relations Board complained that the newspaper publisher interfered with and restrained employees who were exercising their federal labor rights. The complaint was filed Dec. 29.

Danielle Rhoades Ha (a Times spokesperson) stated in a statement that “We strongly disagree” with union allegations regarding the supervision status of some technology workers.

The complaint came in response to an unfair labor practice claim filed in June by the Communications Workers of America’s NewsGuild, which represents many Times employees and last year launched a campaign to unionize its tech staffers.

In April, the workers announced that they formed a union to represent about 650 employees. This includes software engineers as well as product managers.

It refused to recognize the Times Tech Guild voluntarily, which forced the matter to go to a formal election at the NLRB.

The NLRB alleged in the complaint that the management told employees that they could not show union support while being “intern managers”, during a Zoom virtual hearing. This rule has been maintained by the NLRB.

On Wednesday, The Times Tech Guild posted a series on Twitter (NYSE 🙂 claiming that the NLRB had offered the opportunity for the company to resolve the matter but the latter declined. During a hearing scheduled for March, an administrator judge will be presiding over the matter.

According to the Times Tech Guild, “It is frustrating to view this response. Yet another example of a pattern in delays we’ve experienced throughout our campaign.”