It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, December 02, 2022
Chennai: Transfer of 1,000 India crocodiles raises thorny question
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IMAGE SOURCE,JERIN SAMUEL
Image caption,
A thousand crocodiles are being transferred from Tamil Nadu to Gujarat
By Pramila Krishnan
BBC Tamil
A crocodile breeding centre in India is the process of shifting 1,000 crocodiles to a zoo located some 1,931km (1,200 miles) away - and owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
Last year India's zoo regulator approved the transfer of mugger crocodiles from Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in the western state of Gujarat. About 300 crocodiles have been relocated to Gujarat so far.
Officials of the 8.5-acre breeding centre said the crocodiles were being relocated as overcrowding in their original home was leading to fights.
"Because of overpopulation at the bank, hundreds of crocodile eggs are destroyed every year," says Nikhil Whitaker, curator of the centre. "The decision to shift the crocodiles was taken to give them a better space to live in," he adds.
Over the years, the bank has been sending its crocodiles to protected areas and zoos across India. However, this is the first time that such a large number of crocodiles are being shifted.
The 425-acre, three-year-old zoo in Gujarat has said in its latest annual report that the crocodiles "will be given adequate space, food and care".
The breeding centre near Chennai city was started in 1976 for conserving mainly three native species of crocodiles - muggers, saltwater crocodiles and gharials.
It initially had around 40 crocodiles, and the goal was to protect them so that they could multiply and their populations could be released into the wild to restock their natural habitats.
IMAGE SOURCE,JERIN SAMUEL
Image caption,
The crocodile bank is a popular tourist attraction in Chennai
A federal government order in 1994 put a stop to captive-bred crocodiles being released into the wild, Mr Whitaker said. Since then, the bank had to make do with relocating a few crocodiles every now and then to zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.
With wildlife areas shrinking and zoos being able to take in only a limited number of crocodiles, they have been running out of places to send their surplus crocodiles, officials said.
Officials at the breeding centre said the crocodiles will travel to Gujarat in wooden boxes in a temperature-controlled vehicle.
"Since captive crocodiles need to be fed only once a week, they will be fed before the journey," said Mr Whitaker.
Conservationists have raised doubts about the relocation as a solution to overcrowding at the breeding centre. Wildlife biologist P Kannan said since the reptiles will be kept in a closed space in their new home too, the problem will persist.
"There's no sterilisation method [for crocodiles] available yet and male and female crocodiles cannot be kept in separate enclosures for a long time as this leads to fights," said Mr Kannan.
IMAGE SOURCE,JERIN SAMUEL
Image caption,
The bank was started in 1976 to conserve native crocodile species
The BBC reached out to the zoo in Gujarat for more details on steps being taken to keep their crocodile population in check, but has received no response yet.
S Jayachandran, honorary secretary of the Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association, said that instead relocating animals, India should increase its protected areas for wildlife.
"If there was enough space for crocodiles in the wild, they would not have to be relocated to a zoo."
Taiwan's ultra-rich eyeing Singapore as an 'insurance' amid fears of China attack
A view of Singapore. Many rich Taiwanese have their eye on the city state and are considering moving there.
Reuters
There was relative calm among many residents when the Chinese military staged large-scale drills around Taiwan in August, following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the self-ruled island.
But while most people did not believe a full-blown conflict was imminent, the threat of war had become too real for some wealthy Taiwanese families.
Some have since been finalising exit plans, with the aim of eventually moving their loved ones, assets and parts of their business operations to Singapore — long a safe haven for firms looking to dodge Beijing's geopolitical tensions with other governments — according to fund managers and private bankers' accounts.
"They are now looking at more holistic planning. Not just some asset diversification that they have been doing all this while, but also overall relocation plans for both their families and businesses," said Jacky Li, who heads Standard Chartered's Greater China private banking team for affluent clients.
Li said enquiries from Taiwan had increased around fourfold compared to a year ago, primarily from business owners in sectors such as semiconductors and healthcare.
"The rich really want to find a backup solution. Some of them want to have a second passport somewhere else," said Li, who handles ultra-high-net-worth clients, including companies listed on the stock exchange.
One director-level executive from an American bank said wealthy Taiwanese have been increasingly diversifying their assets — including to Singapore — in recent weeks.
In one case, an entrepreneur was set on moving close to US$100 million (S$135 million) in assets. Others, mostly "mid-tier" clients with an eight- to nine-figure net worth, have plans to set up headquarters for their businesses in Singapore, with the hope of securing residency.
In their conversations with him they flagged various recent developments as concerning, including Pelosi's visit in August to Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province awaiting reunification with the mainland.
China's President Xi Jinping securing an unprecedented third term was another factor, prompting some in the business community to think Xi has plans for reunification to seal his legacy.
Beijing sees the self-ruled island, with a population of around 23.9 million, as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of it.
Fears of reunification by force have long been aired by world leaders but have become more pronounced in recent months. Nato members, for example, held their first dedicated debate on China's rising threat to Taiwan in September, according to a report in Britain's Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday (Nov 30).
Flags of Taiwan on display in Taipei. Some wealthy Taiwanese are considering leaving the self-ruled island to move to Singapore. PHOTO: Reuters
"It's not a short-term mindset. It's not a refugee route but it's more for long-term planning," said the American banker, who requested anonymity. "It's to create a way out potentially for their children and grandchildren."
In his two decades in private banking, Taiwanese clients have shown the "strongest motivation" to exit now, he added.
There has been a heightened sense of urgency among wealthy Taiwanese, Li from Standard Chartered pointed out, and a surge in relocations was poised to occur in the next one to two years. "They want to act very fast," as he put it.
Apparently backing that notion up, property agents in Singapore have seen a slight uptick in interest from buyers from Taiwan.
Taiwanese people have generally not been the main buyers in the city state — compared to those from mainland China who have made headlines for snapping up blocks of high-end property and massive bungalows — but they have bought 107 flats so far this year, a 10-year high, according to official research data from Knight Frank.
About 80 per cent of Singapore's 5.5 million population live in public flats that are only available for citizens and permanent residents, while the other 20 per cent live in private flats, which foreigners are allowed to purchase.
Christine Li, head of Asia-Pacific research at Knight Frank, said Singapore property was highly sought after by buyers from mainland China and Taiwan because of the city state's reputation for safety, security and as a growing hub for business and finance.
The resumption of international air travel as countries bounce back from the pandemic would likely bring back Asia's rich, she added, including those from Taiwan, as the wealthy are less sensitive to global rate increases and rising borrowing costs.
Clarence Foo, senior associate division director at property agent Propnex Realty, said the recent wave of Taiwanese buyers are predominantly in their 40s and 50s and wanting luxury condominiums in central Singapore, typically with a budget of between S$15 million and S$20 million.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (left) with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen during the former’s controversial visit to the self-ruled island in August. PHOTO: Reuters
Among the recent transactions involving Taiwanese is a four-bedroom unit at a luxury condominium in the city centre — designed by award-winning French architect Jean Nouvel — which changed hands for S$22.29 million, according to reports.
Last year, Taiwan's Tsai family, who own the Hong Kong-listed snack maker Want Want China Holdings and are worth billions, bought all 20 units of a new condominium in one of Singapore's most exclusive neighbourhoods for S$293 million.
"For Taiwanese buyers, it's all about risk management. They don't know at the end of the day whether there would be an escalation [of cross-strait tension]. They always try to guard against risks and do things a few steps ahead," Foo said. "It's in the event they need to evacuate or situations like that."
Property investment is one of the few ways Taiwanese can park their money elsewhere, said Chung Ting Fai, a lawyer who advises family offices.
Other routes include buying into Singapore-based firms or starting their own family offices. While most of his clients are from mainland China, Chung said he has noticed an upwards trend in interest from rich Taiwanese.
"For the Taiwanese, the threat has been there all the time. They have always thought about shifting their funds, but recent events have sped up their decision-making process," he said.
Chung also noted that some Taiwanese entrepreneurs, especially those with business functions on the mainland, were cautiously optimistic about opportunities in China. "I don't see this as an exhaustive [move] but more of planning," he said.
The inflow of foreign money and investors into Singapore is not new.
The pace at which super-rich Chinese have flocked to the city state for shelter has ramped up over the past few years, observers say, noting that inflows of Hong Kong-based Chinese nationals accelerated in the aftermath of the city's 2019 political turmoil .
Similarly, the most recent wave of Taiwanese decamping to Singapore was a clear reflection of rising risks — including geopolitical ones — around the world, said Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB Private Banking.
"Singapore continues to shine as a beacon and a safe haven for money. Investors feel somewhat safe," he said, noting however that other destinations such as Dubai have started to gain a similar reputation.
He said Singapore has sealed its status as a hub for the rich with its strong emphasis on the rule of law, stable government, and low-tax policies, among a list of other reasons.
The government, though, has sought to stress that while it is open to the influx of investment and top talent, it is mindful of the downsides of its open economy, particularly in exacerbating inequality in the city state.
The country's prime minister-in-waiting, Lawrence Wong, in an interview with Bloomberg on Nov 17, said the government was "clear-eyed" about the challenges, and would continue to ensure inclusive growth and invest in citizens.
On the issue of wealthy Taiwanese seeking to make Singapore their home away from home, Song said it was unsurprising given the bellicose rhetoric coming from China and the US.
"When people are threatened because of the risk of war, they look for an alternative place that they can feel safer [in] both physically and also in terms of their wealth. Singapore ticks all the boxes," he said. "Anyone, whether in Taiwan or elsewhere, would want to take out an insurance policy."
Since last year’s military coup in Myanmar, military courts have sentenced more than 130 people to death behind closed doors, the UN human rights chief said on Friday, following the latest convictions announced this week.
“The military continues to hold proceedings in secretive courts in violation of basic principles of fair trial and contrary to core judicial guarantees of independence and impartiality”, Volker Türk added, calling for the suspension of all executions and a return to a moratorium on death penalty.
Dealing out death
On Wednesday, a military court sentenced at least seven university students to death.
“Military courts have consistently failed to uphold any degree of transparency contrary to the most basic due process or fair trial guarantees”, underscored Mr. Türk.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, reports revealed that as many as four additional death sentences were being issued against youth activists.
The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) is currently seeking clarification on those cases.
No justice
In July, the military carried out four State executions – the first in approximately 30 years.
Despite calls from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the international community to desist, a former lawmaker, a democracy activist, and two others, were put to death.
Close to 1,700 detainees out of the nearly 16,500 who have been arrested for opposing last year’s military’s coup have been tried and convicted in secret by ad hoc tribunals, sometimes lasting just minutes.
They have frequently been denied access to lawyers or their families and none have been acquitted.
The latest convictions would bring the total number of people sentenced to capital punishment since 1 February 2021 to 139 individuals.
Unaligned with ASEAN
Mr. Türk reminded that the military’s actions are not in keeping with the ASEAN peace plan, known as the five-point consensus – that includes the “immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar” – which the regional bloc had re-committed to upholding last month during the ASEAN summit.
At the summit, Secretary-General António Guterres had warned that the political, security, human rights and humanitarian situation in Myanmar was “sliding ever deeper into catastrophe”, condemning the escalating violence, disproportionate use of force, and “appalling human rights situation” in the country.
“By resorting to use death sentences as a political tool to crush opposition, the military confirms its disdain for the efforts by ASEAN and the international community at large to end violence and create the conditions for a political dialogue to lead Myanmar out of a human rights crisis created by the military” the UN human rights chief spelled out.
Forced evictions
At the same time, the Myanmar military is forcibly evicting over 50,000 people from informal settlements and systematically destroying homes in what two UN-appointed independent human rights experts called a fundamental violation of core human rights obligations.
Without providing alternative housing or land, last month more than 40,000 residents living in informal settlements throughout Mingaladon, a township in northern Yangon, were evicted – with most given only a few days to dismantle the homes that they had lived in for decades.
After receiving eviction notices, the lack of options swayed some residents to remain while two reportedly committed suicide out of desperation.
“Forced evictions from Mingaladon are only part of the story. Violent arbitrary housing demolitions continue across the country”, the Special Rapporteurs on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said in a statement.
‘Scorched earth’ policy
According to the experts, not only those living in informal settlements in Myanmar’s cities were subjected to forced evictions and housing demolitions.
“Homes continued to be systematically destroyed, bombed and burned down in orchestrated attacks on villages by the Myanmar security forces and junta-backed militias”, they said.
Since the military coup last year, more than 38,000 houses have been destroyed, triggering the widespread displacement of over 1.1 million people.
On 23 November, 95 of 130 houses in the Kyunhla Township were burned down when the Myanmar military set fire to the settlement.
These incidents follow patterns of violence used against Rohingya villages during genocidal attacks in 2017.
“The policies of scorched earth in Myanmar are widespread and follow a systematic pattern,” the experts said.
Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.
Military and police in Myanmar face off against protestors. Photo Credit: Mehr News Agency
Bulgarian Foreign Ministry employees strike for higher pay
Employees of Bulgaria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs began a strike on December 2, demanding higher pay, with the lowest salaries to be increased by 100 per cent.
Foreign Ministry staff complain that for years, their pay has been among the lowest at a state institution.
Ahead of the strike, they held a symbolic protest on November 30, throwing copper stotinki – low-denomination coins – on to the ground in front of the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Sofia.
Bulgarian National Radio reported that staff were at the workplace, but instead of working, were conducting a cultural and educational programme.
Caretaker Foreign Minister Nikolai Milkov has asked the government to increase staff pay by 30 per cent, a proposal that the staff reject as insufficient.
The 30 per cent increase would cost about 8.5 million leva, and it is not clear if these funds are available.
Trade union leader Martin Kolev said that consular sections abroad remained open, but the directorate that processes such data was on strike, so there could be delays and disruptions.
(Photo: Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
REST IN POWER
Aline Kominsky-Crumb, who transformed comics first as a muse and then as a feminist artist, dies at 74
Aline Kominsky-Crumb brought to comics raw self-lacerating accountability and subverted crude stereotypes about Jewish women
Aline Crumb and Robert Crumb attend A Night at Crumbland celebrating Stella McCartney and Robert Crum Collaboration and the R. Crumb Handbook at the Stella McCartney Store, in New York City, April 12, 2005.
(Nick Papananias/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Robert Crumb put the “x” in comix by setting to paper his basest sexual longings, including strong-legged Jewish women who were cowgirls and who went by the name Honeybunch Kaminski.
So when an actual strong-legged Jewish cowgirl named Aline Kominsky walked into his life, it was love at first sight, and never wavered.
Aline Kominsky-Crumb, who died Wednesday at 74 in France of pancreatic cancer, was late to the revolution her husband launched in comics a few years before they met, with his Zap Comix. The “x” was a signifier of what was then known as “underground” comics and referred to the unfiltered treatment of humanity that censorious publishers, politicians and public figures had all but washed out of the art.
She soon fully embraced the art form and then helped transform it.
Working with her husband and then on her own, Kominsky-Crumb brought to comics raw self-lacerating accountability and subverted crude stereotypes about Jewish women — including those peddled by her husband — by taking possession of them.
She started out as a self-acknowledged sex object reviled by second-wave feminists and became a hero of younger feminists for modeling unfettered sexual expression. She was the brassy Jewish stereotype who became the muse who guided her husband to a deeper consideration of Judaism.
Kominsky-Crumb, born Aline Ricky Goldsmith in 1948 in the Five Towns, a Jewish enclave on Long Island, had a Jewish upbringing that was in many ways conventional, horrifying and both at the same time. She wrote about the warmth of her grandparents’ home and how she sought in it succor and about the pressures her materialistic parents placed on her. She said she was named for a Five Towns clothing store, Aline Ricky, that sold French fashion knockoffs. She resisted her mother’s pressure to get a nose job.
In one autobiographical comic, she recalls seeing one Jewish girl after another coming into school after plastic surgery. “Me ‘n’ my friends developed a ‘big nose pride,’” she writes, and one of the characters says, “I could not stand to look like a carbon copy!”
She told fellow Jewish cartoonist Sarah Lightman about the ordeal. “Like, I kept my nose, but it was really a close call, because my mother had me in Doctor Diamond’s office and he measured my nose. I remember that. They took an instrument and measured your nose. And then he took a piece of paper and he said,’ look, we can make it look like this.’ And I said, ‘Oh my God.’ My mother said, ‘Oh, it’s gorgeous, gorgeous.’”
In her teens, Kominsky-Crumb fled the suburbs for Manhattan. She studied at Cooper Union, an art school, and lived on the Lower East Side, earning plaudits from her instructors for her painting, but getting bored. She had a baby and gave it up for adoption to a Jewish agency, an experience that scarred her, and later led her to become outspoken in advocating for abortion rights.
After she married Carl Kominsky, they moved to Tucson, Arizona, which she called “hippie heaven.” There, she left her husband for a cowboy who lived with two brothers and his father in what she said was “the middle of nowhere” where she helped out on horseback, albeit under the influence of hallucinogens. (She said her beau was killed in a shootout with a romantic rival after she left.)
In Tucson, she met two pioneers of underground comics, Kim Deitch and Spain Rodriguez. They encouraged her to move to San Francisco, which was the scene of the burgeoning movement.
She did and met Crumb at a party in 1971, within three years of his having created “Honeybunch Kaminski, the drug-crazed runaway” (1968) and “Dale Steinberger, the Jewish Cowgirl.” Kominsky-Crumb, who had kept her first husband’s last name because it sounded more “ethnic” than Goldsmith, was so taken with the her husband’s lustful Jewish imaginings, and how closely she physically resembled them, that when she started creating her own, she named her avatar “Bunch,” a shortened version of the character whose name most closely matched her own.
It was kismet, except it wasn’t at first. Crumb and Kominsky-Crumb got together, but maintained open relationships. Crumb endured Kominsky-Crumb’s dalliances with other men for decades, but Kominsky-Crumb was not as able (or willing) to reciprocate. When one of Crumb’s exes arrived at their commune in Mendocino, she told The Comics Journal in 1990, she was furious. “I had a total s— fit,” she said, “I was wearing these giant platform shoes. I ran out the door and I fell and broke my foot in six places.”
Crumb sent the ex on her way and entertained the recovering Kominsky with a pastime he and his brother worked out as children: They would co-create a comic.
That process drew the couple closer, and also became a decades-long unflinching chronicle of a relationship. A culmination, “Drawn Together,” was critically acclaimed when it came out in 2012.
In one passage in the 2012 book, she gently chides her husband for resorting to antisemitic tropes — although it was tropes about loud, slightly unhinged, sexually voracious Jewish women that drew them together.
One page depicts the couple in bed. Crumb is stung by an accusation of antisemitism from Art Spiegelman. (Spiegelman joined with Crumb to launch the underground comics scene in the 1960s, but they grew apart as Spiegelman, who would author the Holocaust chronicle “Maus,” sought to attach an overarching philosophy to the genre, while Crumb continued to crave crude authenticity.)
Crumb says that Spiegelman “seems to be taking my ruminations about the Jews as antisemitism … I certainly didn’t mean it as such.” Kominsky-Crumb draws herself into the panel, listening to her husband, as a little girl wearing tefillin, a T-shirt with “kosher” in Hebrew and a Star of David pendant. In the next panel, once again appearing as a grown woman in a negligee, she makes clear to Crumb why she feels vulnerable as a Jew in the marriage.
“Dahling, you do call the Jewish religion ‘Brand X’,” she says.. “Now I might even think that’s true in some ways … and I’m one o’ them … I’m allowed to say that!”
Crumb draws himself as wounded but also awakened. “Oh, I see … ulp.” Crumb dedicated his masterwork, “The Book of Genesis,” a searing illustrated narrative of the Bible’s first book, to Aline.
The Crumbs’ collaborative work was celebrated among aficionados, but it wasn’t until 1994’s “Crumb,” a documentary directed by Crumb’s close Jewish friend, Terry Zwigoff, that she emerged into the broader culture. A vibrant, peripatetic Kominsky-Crumb cares for their daughter, Sophie, and revels in their life in a small French village, where they had moved a few years earlier, while Crumb continues to hold back, playing the wounded, misunderstood artist.
It was an arrival of sorts for Kominsky-Crumb. She had for a time been marginalized even on the underground scene, her deceptively simple art derided as sloppy. She helped found the Wimmen’s Comix collective in 1972, and wrote about her Jewish upbringing in the first issue, a piece entitled “Goldie: A Neurotic Woman.” But she was soon frozen out because some of her colleagues thought her musings about longing to be dominated (and her tendency to dress that way to please Crumb) were denigrating to women. “The Yoko Ono of Comics,” is how the New York Times described her early years.
She left the collective and joined another Jewish woman artist, Diane Noomin, in launching “Twisted Sisters” in 1976. Its cover depicts hers seated on a toilet wondering “How many calories in a cheese enchilada.” The message to her erstwhile colleagues, who depicted women heroically, was clear: Kominsky-Crumb would indulge her full unvarnished self.
It would take decades, but a later generation of feminists would come to understand her autobiographical “Bunch” not as a self-loathing caricature but as a means of understanding ones whole self. In 2020, Lightman launched an interview with Kominsky-Crumb by reviewing a 1975 cartoon, “Bunch plays with herself” that shocked even the underground scene at the time with its graphic depictions of a woman exploring every corner of her body.
“I didn’t do it to be disgusting but it’s, like, about every horrible and fun thing you can do with your body,” Kominsky-Crumb told Lightman. “I think it’s an amazing piece of feminist art,” Lightman said in the interview, “because women are drawn to be gazed at, and [here we see] their bodily juices, and everything. … The last panel is the best. ‘My body is an endless source of entertainment’.”
In 2007, she and Crumb created a cover for the Jewish counterculture magazine Heeb, where she is cradling him in her arms. “”I feel so safe in the arms of this powerful Jewish woman!” Crumb says.
By 2018, she was scrolling through her phone to show a New York Times reporter pictures of Crumb cavorting with the grandkids. (Daughter Sophie in adulthood also is a comics artist.) The photos then transition to photos of women’s behinds, taken in Miami.
“I’m enabling his big butt fixation,” she said. “Well I don’t have a big butt anymore so I have to offer him something.”
“It was her energy that transformed the American Crumb family into a Southern French one, with her daughter Sophie living, marrying and having three French children there,” the official Crumb website said in announcing her death. “She will be dearly missed within that family, by the international cartooning community, but especially by Robert, who shared the last 50 years of his life with her.”
The president chose the rock, leaving the railroad workers in the hard place. He really had no choice but to sign what the Senate sent him. No responsible president of either party could allow a rail strike at Christmas, and that's not even taking into account the lingering economic effects of the pandemic. But it's hard to argue with these guys. From ABC:
2 December 2022 More than 1,000 union employees at the New York Times have pledged to walk out for 24 hours if the news publisher does not agree to a 'complete and equitable contract' by December 8.
NYT NewsGuild Unit Chair Bill Baker issued the walkout threat in a letter to Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien on Friday, a copy of which the union also posted on Twitter.
Arguing that their paychecks have been 'eviscerated by soaring inflation' while the company enjoys fat profits, the union members demanded 'wages that keep up with inflation and are commensurate with the value of our work.'
At the end of last year, regulatory filings show the Times had about 5,000 workers, including roughly 2,000 in newsroom roles, meaning the walkout would leave a skeleton crew in place to maintain the Times' website and produce the newspaper. +5 View gallery +5 View gallery
NYT NewsGuild Unit Chair Bill Baker (left) issued a walkout threat in a letter to Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger (right) and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien on Friday
A NYT spokesman insisted the walkout would not stop the presses, telling DailyMail.com: 'While we are disappointed that the NewsGuild is threatening to strike, we are prepared to ensure The Times continues to serve our readers without disruption.'
'We remain committed to working with the NYT NewsGuild to reach a contract that we can all be proud of,' the spokesperson added. 'Our current wage proposal offers significant increases.'
But the union argues management has negotiated in bad faith, dragging out bargaining sessions for a new contract over the past 20 months.
Union boss Baker, backed by the walkout pledge, demanded 'all-day, marathon' bargaining sessions in order to hammer out a new deal before the December 8 deadline.
In addition to concessions on base pay and health insurance, the union is also seeking a return to more flexibility on hybrid and remote work, after all employees were ordered back into the office as pandemic restrictions eased.
A 24-hour walkout, from midnight to midnight on December 8, could severely hamper newsroom operations at the Times, which is the second-largest US newspaper by paid circulation, following the Wall Street Journal.
The New York Times building is seen in a file photo. Union employees argue their paychecks have been 'eviscerated by soaring inflation' while the company enjoys fat profits
During the walkout, reporters plan to picket outside the NYT headquarters in Manhattan, and the 24-hour work stoppage could be followed soon by a sustained strike, according to New York Magazine.
'Obviously the next step, if we can't get anywhere at the negotiating table, is to consider things like a strike authorization vote,' reporter Michael Powell told the outlet.
He added that 'none of us want to step into the terra incognita if this isn't seen as a significant warning shot.'
In March, a group of nearly 600 tech employees at the New York Times voted to unionize as the company faced claims it unlawfully interfered with labor organizing.
Now, Times staffers are particularly upset due to the perception that the company and upper management are rolling in cash, and not sharing enough of the profits.
Baker's letter cited the company's projected $300 million operating profit for this year, and insiders are fuming over Sulzberger's fat pay bump.
Regulatory filings showed he took home $3.6 million last year, up 50 percent from $2.4 million the prior year. +5 View gallery
NYT NewsGuild Unit Chair Bill Baker sent the above letter to Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien on Friday, threatening a December 8 walkout
But Times management insist that their contract offers have been generous.
'The majority of members of the bargaining unit would earn 50 percent or more in additional earnings over the life of the new contract than they would have if the old contract had continued,' the NYT spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
'Moreover, our accompanying medical and retirement proposals offer sustainable, best-in-class options for Guild members.'
'For additional context, under our latest proposal, a reporter in the union making $120,000, which is slightly below the median base salary in the unit, would get about $33,000 in additional earnings during the life of the new contract — or 57 percent more than if the old contract had continued,' the statement said.
'A reporter in the union making $160,000 would get about $44,000 in additional earnings during the life of the new contract or 108 percent more than if the prior contract had continued.'
How Muslim American candidates made history in the midterms
The 2022 midterms saw the greatest number of Muslim Americans elected to office. According to a report from Jetpac Resource Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 153 Muslim Americans ran for office across all levels of government. Ruwa Roman was recently elected to the Georgia House of Representatives and joined Geoff Bennett to discuss her motivation to run for office.
Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa on 'How to Stand Up to a Dictator'
More than a year after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, journalist Maria Ressa still faces a series of criminal charges in her native country of the Philippines. She spent much of her time reporting on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s regime and the war on drugs. Ressa sat down with Judy Woodruff and discussed her book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future."
JERIN SAMUEL
JERIN SAMUEL
JERIN SAMUEL
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