NYT Tech Guild says AI tools are being used to monitor workers

In short: Unionized tech employees at The New York Times say the company is using AI tools to track and judge their work in ways that violate their contract.

What happened

The New York Times Tech Guild, which represents about 700 tech workers, says Times management has not shared enough information about how it is using AI, what it plans to do next, and how that could affect jobs. The union says it has filed an unfair labor practice charge over the information requests.

The union also filed grievances saying the company broke parts of their contract by using two internal AI tools that can track employee activity and performance. One tool is called DX. According to the union, DX started as a way to measure engineering work across the company, but has recently been used in a more personal way, including benchmarks applied to individuals.

Ben Harnett, a software engineer at the Times and chair of the unit’s generative AI committee, told The Verge that DX statistics have been cited in disciplinary conversations. He said metrics like how many “pull requests” someone makes (a common way software changes are submitted) do not necessarily reflect the quality or impact of their work.

The other tool, Glean, is a workplace search system. It pulls from internal sources like wikis, documents, and emails so employees can find information faster. The union says it could also be used like a detailed paper trail, where managers can look up what a person worked on and how much they contributed.

A Times spokesperson said the company disagrees with the union’s characterizations and will respond through its normal process.

Why it matters

This dispute shows a growing question in many workplaces, not just newsrooms. When software can measure work like a scoreboard, employees may worry it turns complex jobs into simple numbers, and that those numbers can be used to pressure or punish people.

Source: The Verge AI