Manhattan’s Eighth Avenue was packed, an inflatable rat was presiding, and placards were out in full force for the New York Times’s first full-day walkout in four decades. Calling for higher pay and more diversity at the Gray Lady, 1,100 employees had pledged not to work. 

On hand for the demonstration, this reporter was quickly given a leaflet by a smiling woman in a “Bernie Sanders 2020” beanie. The slip accused Times executives of prioritizing “financial success while shortchanging workers.” 

One woman wearing a “Democratic Socialists of America” cap carried a sign indicating that she was both a Times subscriber and a supporter of the strike. The opening speaker was Nikole Hannah-Jones, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the 1619 Project. She has not written for the Times since 2020. 

Ms. Hannah-Jones, whose biography on Twitter identifies her as a “Slanderous & nasty-minded mulattress,” noted that “solidarity is the only way for us to collectively rise.” When the crowd insisted she could not be heard over the din, she observed that “nobody ever said I wasn’t loud enough before.” 

Ms. Hannah-Jones called for a “$65,000 salary floor” for all employees as well as the establishment of a “committee on diversity.” If that initiative does not “touch management,” she argued, it would be “unacceptable.” She noted that she worked two jobs until she was 30 years old. Now, in addition to her position as a correspondent at the Times Magazine, she is also a tenured professor at Howard University.

Another speaker was the president of the Newsguild of New York, of which the New York Times Guild is a part. Susan DeCarava led a call and response with the crowd that involved her asking, “Who’s got the power?” The assemblage responded, “We’ve got the power” and “Union power.” 

Ms. DeCarava observed that the current impasse “didn’t have to be this way” and urged management to “make better choices.” Referring to the publisher of the Times, A.G. Sulzburger, and its chief executive, Meredith Kopit Levien, she intoned that “Meredith and A.G. must pay the bill that’s due.” 

In reference to the Times’s executives and shareholders, Ms. DeCarava noted that “they got paid, and now it’s your turn.” She related a bit of bargaining wisdom she learned from the Teamsters, who led the recent unionization push at Condé Nast; “don’t settle for crumbs. Don’t leave the negotiating table without a full plate.” 

Also in attendance was New York City’s comptroller, Bradley Lander. Described by Politico as “one of the most left-leaning politicians in the city,” Mr. Lander confessed to listening to the Times’s news podcast, The Daily, “in the shower,” but claimed he did not today — nor did he play Wordle —  in solidarity with the strike. “I don’t cross picket lines,” he explained. 

One longtime editor, Tom Coffey, noted that for the quarter-century anniversary of his joining the paper, he received only a “tote bag,” which he held aloft for the crowd. He insisted that “I don’t need nicknacks, I need a raise.”      

Notwithstanding the claim issued Thursday that “management isn’t listening to us” and that they were “giving out stock dividends like candy,” the paper’s deputy managing editor, Cliff Levy, has labeled the strike “puzzling” given that both sides are ostensibly still at the bargaining table.   

A New York Times spokeswoman, Danielle Rhoades Ha, lamented in a statement that it was “disappointing that they are taking such an extreme action when we are not at an impasse.” The Times’s executive editor, Joseph “Joe” Kahn, promised to “produce a robust report” on Thursday. 

One popular tweet, from Times critic-at-large Amanda Hess, urged readers to join the “digital picket line” by reading local news, listening to public radio, making “something from a cookbook,” and breaking their “Wordle streak.”