It can be difficult to send a private, important email to multiple recipients. It is important to verify the order of recipients and to cc assistants reminding the higher-ups to respond. Last but not least, ensure you don't send the email to anyone you aren't supposed to. One New York Times lawyer might be wishing that the Earth would swallow him because he forgot to send that one.AdvertisementAccording to the Daily Beast, Michael Lebowich, Times' outside counsel, was a partner at Proskauer Rose and sent a memo titled Tech Organizing Unit Scope Decision Options (to union representatives for outlets technology and product employees) last week. The memo outlined the options that the Times could use to deal with the New York Times Tech Guild union and limit its impact. According to the Guild, 70% of workers have pledged their support for a union.The Guild represents 600 workers and the Times refused to recognize it. Instead, the Times opted to have an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. The paper wants to limit the election to software engineers, while the unions are fighting over who is eligible to vote. Representatives of the union claim that this would reduce the bargaining unit by more then a third.According to The Daily Beast, Lebowich sent the email not only to his colleagues at Proskauer Rose but also to Andrew Gutterman (Times senior vice president and deputy General Counsel). He also cced Rachel Sanders who is an organizer for New York's chapter of the NewsGuild. This union represents employees in the Times tech and product departments.In an email, Lebowich lists three options for Times. One option was to allow a larger union, which would allow more employees to vote. This could be a way for the paper to defeat the union proposal during an election. Another option was to allow a medium-sized union. Authorizing a smaller union would likely mean that the effort would be successful, but it would have a limited scope and size.The Daily Beast reported that the Times chose the most aggressive option. This could lead to a union that has fewer than 400 members.Angela Guo, an organizing member of the New York Times Tech Guild, stated to the outlet that the email indicated that the Times wasn't holding an election in order to ensure that all voices were represented. She maintained that the goal of the email was to weaken the union.AdvertisementGuo stated that this is not a neutral position and does not indicate that they want a fair election in which all voices are heard. They are just being disingenuous in their intentions.According to a Times spokesperson, the email included a list of options that the Company offers and considerations for each option. It also acknowledged that the email was accidentally sent to the union representative.AdvertisementWe continue to evaluate our position and today, as part the NLRB process we submitted a legal file in response to the Guilds petition. It outlines the groups that we believe should be organized together in one unit as well as the people who are and are not eligible for the unit. We believe that each function has vastly different responsibilities and performs different tasks, and requires separate supervision. However, employees can form other units.
