The CEO of AI search company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, has offered to cross a virtual picket line and provide services during a strike by New York Times tech workers.
The NYT Tech Guild announced its strike Monday, having said for months that this was the deadline. “But the company has decided that our members aren’t worth enough to agree to a fair contract and stop committing unfair labor practices,” the guild wrote on X.
“They have left us no choice but to demonstrate the power of our labor on the picket line,” said Kathy Zhang, the organization’s unit chair, in a statement.
The workers represented by the guild provide software support and data analysis for the Times, on the business side of the outlet. They have been asking for an annual 2.5 percent wage, and cementing the current two days per week in-office expectation, among other things.
The NYT’s publisher, AG Sulzberger, criticized a strike at such a crucial time for the paper, saying in a statement that “Hundreds of millions of people are depending on The Times’s journalism on Election Day and afterward, and it is troubling that the Tech Guild would try to block this public service at such a consequential moment for our country.”
While negotiations continue, picketers demonstrated in front of the NYT building in New York.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, though, Perplexity’s CEO offered to step in for the striking workers.
Replying to Semafor media editor Max Tani quoting the publisher, Srinivas wrote: “Hey AG Sulzberger @nytimes sorry to see this. Perplexity is on standby to help ensure your essential coverage is available to all through the election. DM me anytime here.”
There’s no sense mincing words here: Srinivas is acting as a scab — a derogatory term for people willing to perform the jobs of striking workers. It is widely considered a disreputable behavior in matters of labor and equity. By undercutting collective action, scabs limit the ability of workers to bargain with those in positions of power.
Srinivas may simply be trying to make sure people have the information they need on election day — the company has lately unveiled its own elections info hub and map. But to offer its services explicitly as a replacement for striking workers is bound to be an unpopular move.
The NYT and Perplexity aren’t exactly on the best of terms right now. The Times sent Perplexity a cease and desist letter in October over the startup’s scraping of articles for its AI. In a conversation last week with TechCrunch, the normally outspoken CEO declined to define “plagiarism.”
This story is developing. Check back soon for updates.