'NY Times' Labor Protest: Give P's a Chance

New York Times Co. executives may talk a good game about how the paper's future lies online, but web-side employees are still getting treated like second class citizens -- and they're very politely not going to take it anymore!

Officers of the New York Times Digital Guild asked members to wear badges with the letter "P" on them yesterday to protest the stalled negotiations over their much-needed new contract. While the web workers' demands are relatively straightforward -- they want their salaries matched to those of their print-side counterparts -- the talks are bound up in a bigger dispute between the Newspaper Guild and NYT Co. management over health benefits, overtime pay and other difficult-to-resolve issues.

A Times Co. spokeswoman confirmed the protest but offered no comment on the underlying issue, while several Guild officers didn't reply to messages.

And in case you're wondering what that "P" was supposed to mean, it was for "parity" -- not for "Please, Mr. Sulzberger, may we have some more?"

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Disclosure: I have freelanced for the Times.