The New York Times and the Newspaper Guild of New York will turn to an outside mediator to help hammer out a contract. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the paper’s publisher, broke the news to staff in an email. At the union’s suggestion, the mediator will be Martin Scheinman, an arbitrator who has heard disputes at the Times before.
The introduction of a mediator comes after two major developments: employees staged a brief walkout on Monday, and representatives for management walked out of Tuesday’s negotiating session and said that the newspaper would make its “final offer” for a contract on Thursday.
Times correspondent Donald G. McNeil Jr. said mediation was a positive development. “This is very good for the process – we were getting nowhere,” he wrote. He described Scheinman’s role: “A mediator listens to both sides and then shuttles back and forth between the two rooms like Henry Kissinger, leaning on each of them to give in bit by bit until a deal is reached.”
The union proposed Scheinman “not because he’s pro-union but because he’s said to be super-smart. He’s a private mediator – he is paid by both sides to try to bring them to a deal.”
Any deal reached through mediation would not be final without a membership ratification vote by employees.
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