More than 1,100 members of the New York Times union are on a 24-hour strike, after pledging to walk out last Friday if the company refused to meet its demands of a fair contract by December 8. Members of the union have called on the public to avoid engaging with any of the Times's platforms today, including its popular daily word game Wordle, saying in a release, “Read local news. Listen to public radio. Make something from a cookbook. Break your Wordle streak.” 

Management at the Times has continued to refuse the $65,000 minimum salary proposed by the union, known as the New York Times Guild, and has failed to meet the guild’s needs. The union points out that the company’s management has attempted to cut funding for retirement benefits and kill worker pension plans, for example. The contract between the company and the guild expired in March 2021 and about 40 bargaining sessions have been held since. The last walk-out of this scale at the Times was a multi-day strike in September and October of 1965. 

The guild’s focus on Wordle stems from the fact that the company purchased the game for over a million dollars in January. The New York Times Guild tweeted last Friday, “In 2022, the @nytimes spent millions of dollars to purchase Wordle and The Athletic and allocated $150 million in stock buybacks to its investors. And yet it is still offering wage ‘increases’ that amount to pay cuts during record-high inflation.” Wordle was trending on Twitter on Thursday, with everyone from union members to actor Mark Ruffalo encouraging users to break their Wordle streaks.  

Wordle fans who don't want to cross a picket line can still get their fix thanks to a strike-themed version called Strikle. 

In solidarity with the strike, a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1624 labor union in Austin, Texas named Chris Pitts created strikle.org, a special, alternative puzzle for today’s walk-out. 

“Many people told me about how they played Wordle daily, but they would be breaking their streaks in order to stand in solidarity with NYT workers," Pitts told Motherboard. "This got me thinking about how it would be cool to create a Wordle alternative so that people could still play without crossing the NYT picket line. So last night, I created Strikle to fill that need and also help spread awareness of the walkout.”

After Pitts coded the site, he posted it to GitHub so the code can be accessed by anyone. The solution to Strikle is fitting, and so is what happens after solving the puzzle—spoilers follow from here. 

The answer to the puzzle is SCABS. When you type SCABS in, the pro-union anthem “Solidarity Forever” begins playing and the website reads, “Thats right! The word was SCABS. We hate them! Thank you for not being one!” 

“We are in a time where workers, from Starbucks to Amazon, are realizing how much power they have when they organize," Pitts said. "Organizing isn’t always easy, but the working class has no power divided, and all the power in the world as a collective. NYT workers are helping demonstrate how much power we can have when we organize, and it's really great to see them fight the tough fight against corporate greed, and inspire so many workers around the country to organize and stand up for their rights.

The guild’s rally began at 1 p.m. on Thursday in front of The New York Times building. Guild members were joined by larger unions such as New York State AFL-CIO and The NewsGuild of New York, to which The New York Times has belonged since 1941. 

In addition to not using the Times’s platform all-day Thursday, union members are encouraging the public to send a letter to the company’s publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, and CEO Meredith Levien. The letter has already been pre-written and can be sent out after users enter their name and email address. The subject of the letter reads, “New York Times, Give Your Employees the Contract They Deserve.” 

A speaker said at Thursday's walk-out rally, "This fight is not easy. A work stoppage is not easy... One of the beautiful parts of our union is that we are standing up for both workers and journalism. We do our best work when we are treated equitably.”

A group of Apple retail workers in Australia could soon be able to refuse to sell certain products and, in extreme cases, even go on strike.

If all goes as planned for the workers, a growing portion of Apple’s retail workforce in Australia would be entitled to a smattering of new strike options by later this month. Some, like refusing to sell certain products or refer customers to Apple’s business programs, might seem more harmless, but have the potential to threaten a considerable chunk of Apple’s day-to-day Australian retail business. 

Others, like refusing to show up to work as the company heads into launch season, have the potential to wreak havoc. 

It comes after Apple workers unionised and secured a protected action order with the nation’s Fair Work Commission, which would allow them to protest without risking their jobs or getting sued. Unlike the United States, unionised workers in Australia are required to apply to strike or picket.

The order will first go to a vote and require at least half of the 100 workers balloted, who are members of Australia’s Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, to vote in favour of the protections before they’re granted.

One Apple retail staffer, who spoke to VICE World News on the condition of anonymity for fears of retribution, said workers have been left with no choice but to take action, after the company opened talks over a new enterprise bargaining agreement—or a collective pay deal for all staff employed by the company in Australia—without notifying workers of their chance to negotiate with management.

“I think that people realise that things weren’t happening in a normal fashion, when the first bargaining meeting happened without us knowing,” they said. “That was the inflection point for me.”

In late August, Apple was accused of trying to rush through a “subpar” new pay deal in “bad faith” for its 4,000 Australian retail staffers, who have been paid on an old “zombie” pay deal that expired in 2018. 

As a result, two other unions with members working on Apple’s shop floors took the matter to Australia’s Fair Work Commission. In a joint statement late last month, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and the Australian Services Union (ASU) alleged Apple had moved with “undue haste” to roll out a new bargaining agreement, and that its proposed demands were “unethical”. 

“Staff were only given a copy of the draft enterprise agreement on August 3,” said Gerard Dwyer, national secretary of the SDA, late last month. 

“They had their first meeting about a week later. The SDA and the ASU were not invited to that meeting. We are trying to play catch up here with a company that's throwing its weight around with its workforce, operating with undue haste.”

The old deal has seen Apple’s Australian retail workers for years treated like casual workers without any of the benefits—like weekend penalty rates and loading pay—that come with it. Instead, workers are expected to have “wide availability” and are forced to succumb to an ever-changing roster while effectively earning “less than minimum wage”. 

The new deal wasn’t much of an improvement, unions say. It would have seen workers take a real wage pay cut, and allowed store management to roster workers up to 60 hours in a single week, without overtime. It once again thrust the company’s treatment of its workers into global focus.

In late June, Apple’s retail employees in Maryland, Baltimore, became the first of the company’s more than 270 stores across the United States to unionise, as part of a bid to have more of a say on wages and COVID-19 policies. According to union representatives in the U.S., dozens more stores hope to follow in their footsteps. 

But Apple isn’t alone in facing a full-throttled return of the labour movement in the U.S. The efforts of workers at the company’s Maryland store coincide with a wave of other recent union campaigns, led in large part by young workers, to organise workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Google and Activision.

The insurgence has inspired workers in Australia, too. 

Josh Cullinan, secretary of Australia’s Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, told VICE World News that the organised action seen from workers in the U.S., along with the arrival of a crippling cost of living crisis, has charged much of the action now happening in Australia.

Workers at Apple in Australia feel particularly inspired, he said, because they face many of the same union-busting tactics faced by workers in the U.S. 

“We have our protected action ballot underway, we provide the bargaining representative appointments of our members to [Apple] management, so they know where these groups of workers are, and then [suddenly] the employee and labour relations team is showing up [in these locations],” Cullinan said. 

“They come in under the guise of ‘someone’s complained’, or ‘someone’s raised an issue’, which is complete garbage,” he said. “And then they just grill every worker, ‘How did you come to join the union? Who asked you to join the union?’—all on the shop floor.”

Apple’s union-busting tactics are well-documented, and their arrival in Australia has captured the close attention of corporate and union leaders alike. 

Earlier this year, Motherboard obtained a memo detailing a series of anti-union talking points which was circulated for store leaders to use with employees in the U.S. Just weeks later, audio capturing Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s vice president of retail and people, trying to discourage workers from unionising was leaked as well.

“We have a relationship that's based on an open and collaborative and direct engagement, which I feel could fundamentally change if a store is represented by a union under a collective bargaining agreement,” O’Brien was heard saying in the leak.

Workers in Australia have reported similar moves. Across the country, Apple’s retail workers say union fliers are being shredded and cleared from break rooms, and even the word “union” has come to be treated by Apple management as an epithet. 

An Apple retail worker told VICE World News that in their Queensland store, managers have begun describing unions as “coercive”, and moved to stifle all conversation about collective bargaining. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for fears of retribution, but said the company’s union-busting tactics have recently started to seep into his store’s morning meetings, otherwise known as “daily downloads”, as well.

“Essentially, what they tried to do yesterday was scrap the issued store guidance, and instead run this script from higher up, where they’re talking about all of the benefits that are outside of the agreement, and why we shouldn’t be worried that Apple’s not promising anything in there,” they said. 

“So it’s a distraction of what’s going on, like, ‘You shouldn’t be asking for more, because look over there!’”

Apple’s retail workers in Australia continue to bargain for a new pay deal. The most recent bargaining meeting was held on Thursday. 

A spokesperson at Apple couldn’t be drawn on whether the union-busting tactics seen in Australia are the result of a top-down management directive, but told VICE World News that it would continue to bargain with its retail workforce.

“We are proud to have an incredible team of nearly 4,000 people in Australia and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple, and to our customers,” the spokesman said.

“We announced our intention to form a new Enterprise Agreement in early August, and we welcome the opportunity for participation and engagement with our team members. Throughout this process Apple has not set any deadlines and we will continue to hold regular meetings to share and encourage feedback.”

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A group of Apple retail workers has coordinated the first nationwide strike in Australian history, their union told VICE World News, as workers turn the screw on the world’s most valuable company for a better pay deal.

On Tuesday, more than 100 unionised Apple retail workers walked off the job for an hour in stores across Australia in protest of a new pay deal that has seen Apple refuse to offer its retail workforce minimum standards like weekends and set rosters, after months-long negotiations slowed to a standstill. 

Apple’s retail workforce in Australia joins a wave of others around the world in organising for better pay deals, as a global cost of living crisis begins to simmer to a boil. 

Just a few days ago, workers at an Apple store in Oklahoma City voted for it to become the second store in the U.S. to unionise, after Apple’s retail employees in Maryland, Baltimore, unionised to have more say on wages and COVID-19 policies in April. Meanwhile, in Glasgow, Scotland, workers at an Apple store are poised to vote on whether to unionise early next month.

Josh Cullinan, secretary of Australia’s Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, told VICE World News the organised action seen from workers in the U.S., along with the arrival of a crippling cost of living crisis, has charged much of the action now happening in Australia.

Workers at Apple in Australia feel particularly inspired, he said, because they face many of the same union-busting tactics faced by workers in the U.S. 

“Apple has refused to bargain in good faith, hardly budging from a wage-cutting substandard deal which pays less than the [minimum wage], without set rosters, and without any work-life balance,” Cullinan said. 

In Australia, Apple’s retail workers have been pushing back against the company for months, after they accused its leadership in August of trying to rush through a “subpar” new pay deal in “bad faith” for its 4,000 retail staffers, who have been paid on an old “zombie” pay deal that expired in 2018. 

In early September, unionised retail workers at Apple in Australia voted to strike in protest of poor pay by refusing to sell certain products or to work at all. After that, Apple eventually came to the table with an improved pay deal that included new pay minimums 17 percent above the industry minimum wage, and offered “improvements to scheduling.” 

For those working full time, that means they will get two consecutive days off each week, but no set days off. Part-timers, meanwhile, will get guaranteed minimum hours under the new deal, but no weekends or set days off. 

The latest pay deal would guarantee Apple’s retail staffers earning minimum wage an annual wage increase of 2.6 percent and 2.8 percent over the next four years. However, because most of Apple’s retail workers earn above minimum wage, unions argue, more than 70 percent of the company’s staffers wouldn’t receive the benefits.

Cullinan said he hopes this week’s round of strike action will force the company back to the table to deliver an even better pay deal, which he suggested they can no doubt afford. 

“Apple has admitted it hasn’t even costed their annual wage increases—2.8 percent and 2.6 percent starting late in 2023. Money doesn’t matter to them, profit is their God.”

A spokesperson for Apple refused to answer questions from VICE World News about the state of negotiations, but insisted that the company’s workers are among the best-paid in Australia. He said Apple has made “many significant enhancements” to the company’s “industry-leading benefits.”

“We are committed to providing an excellent experience for our customers and teams, and proud to reward our valued team members in Australia with strong compensation and exceptional benefits.”

“I think that people realise that things weren’t happening in a normal fashion when the first bargaining meeting happened without us knowing. That was the inflection point for me.”

Along with Tuesday’s strike action, unionised Apple workers in Australia will also begin to refuse to sell certain products or refer customers to Apple’s financing services from Wednesday, in an attempt to force the company’s hand on a better deal. Some of that action, which also includes refusing to offer technical support to customers, might seem more harmless, but has the potential to threaten a considerable chunk of Apple’s day-to-day Australian retail business. 

According to the union, Apple has threatened workers who plan to strike with “unilateral wage cuts.” On Monday evening, the company announced that it will take its latest pay offer, which unions say is still “substandard,” to a vote with the company’s 4,000 workers in Australia. In response, unionised workers told VICE World News they will strike again on Oct. 22 for a full 24 hours, as they launch a fierce “vote no” campaign.

One Apple retail staffer, who spoke to VICE World News on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said workers were left with no choice but to take action, after the company opened talks over the new enterprise bargaining agreement—a collective pay deal for all Apple staff in Australia—with a small subset of non-unionised workers, without notifying all workers of their chance to negotiate with management.

“I think that people realise that things weren’t happening in a normal fashion when the first bargaining meeting happened without us knowing,” they said. “That was the inflection point for me.”

The old deal has seen Apple’s Australian retail workers for years treated like casual workers without any of the benefits—like weekend penalty rates and loading pay—that come with it. Instead, workers are expected to have “wide availability,” Cullinan says, and are forced to succumb to an ever-changing roster while effectively earning “less than minimum wage.” 

The new deal tabled by Apple in August wasn’t much of an improvement, unions say. It would have seen workers take a real wage cut, and allowed store management to roster workers up to 60 hours in a single week, without overtime. 

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