New York Times declines to recognize The Athletic as part of NewsGuild union

Earlier this week, the staff at The Athletic announced its plans to join the NewsGuild of New York, which represents the majority of the newsroom at its parent company, The New York Times.

But as it turns out, The Athletic’s unionization efforts won’t be so simple.

On Thursday, the NewsGuild announced that the New York Times has declined to recognize its sports outlet as a member of the union. Meanwhile, the Times said that it would voluntarily recognize The Athletic as a separate bargaining entity, but doesn’t believe that the sports outlet should be a part of the NewsGuild’s preexisting Times union.

“New York Times management has notified the Athletic organizing committee and The NewsGuild of New York that they will not recognize The Athletic’s editorial staff as part of the Times Guild,” a statement from the NewsGuild reads. “Instead of doing the right thing by its Athletic workers, Times management is continuing the charade of pretending it operates separate newsrooms in an attempt to keep a two-tiered system that disenfranchises Athletic workers.

“Management’s decision does not come as a surprise, given The New York Times’ long history of union-busting. We filed for an election at the National Labor Relations Board, and that process is moving forward.

“Sports jobs are Times Guild jobs. It’s that simple.”

In a letter sent to The Athletic’s U.S. staff, The Athletic’s publisher David Perpich shared the Times‘ position on the matter.

“We strongly believe that the best approach is to have The Athletic’s journalists form a separate bargaining unit within the NewsGuild, not to have them absorbed into the Times unit, as was proposed in the letter,” Perpich wrote. “We are prepared to voluntarily recognize such a separate unit, as we did with the Wirecutter Union.”

News of The Athletic’s staff’s attempt to join the union came three years after it was first reported that the Times bought the online sports outlet for $550 million. In 2023, the Times announced that it was disbanding its sports desk and replacing its coverage with content produced by The Athletic.

As alluded to in the NewsGuild’s statement, the Times replacing its own coverage with content from a non-unionized staff was viewed by many as a union-busting tactic — a notion only furthered by the initial news that the newspaper wouldn’t recognize The Athletic’s initial unionization effort. At this point, it remains unclear whether The Athletic will further its attempt to join the NewsGuild or begin to make efforts to negotiate as a separate entity.