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Ryan Murphy

@ryan.fail

a traveler from the cursed land of online journalism. product developer at @themarshallproject.org. bargaining with @marshallprojectguild.org. @rdmurphy in most other haunts. on parental leave. 🫡

403 Posts1051 Follower86 Folgt
Tom MacWright@macwright.com · 2d ago

the gist of this wave of ai writing: everyone uses llms. and we hate reading their output, don't like the software they make. pretty sure that they're causing skill loss for their users. however, i have found a special unique way to use them that makes me and my software and writing the exception.

Tom MacWright@macwright.com · 3w ago

the gist of this wave of ai writing: everyone uses llms. i do. you do. we all know that it turns us into manic-depressive shadows of our former selves, hating every moment of our lives, dreading the future. my proposition is: what if it didn't.

Marshall Project Guild@marshallprojectguild.org · 5d ago

We put down our counterproposal for fair Just Cause this week with the majority of our unit at the table to support it — but not our CEO, who declined to attend bargaining. Read our full bargaining update for more, including the shocking healthcare increases we're being asked to shoulder:

We returned to bargaining on Monday to present the fair Just Cause counterproposal the workers of TMP deserve – many of those same workers came to the table in support. This proposal is foundational to our contract and absolutely critical to our members. It’s disappointing that while many of us (almost 70% of our unit!) made the effort to attend, our CEO did not. We are deeply invested in the future of TMP, and the Just Cause language we codify in our final contract has serious implications for that future. We invited Katrice to this session both in our previous shop paper and in follow up communications in the hopes that she, as the leader of the company’s long-term strategy and vision, would be a part of the conversation around Just Cause and listen directly to our concerns and demands. Management’s counsel, Eddie, declined on her behalf. Throughout the bargaining session, Eddie cited hypothetical scenarios, rather than directly addressing the working conditions at TMP. It would have been both productive and effective to instead speak with Katrice to address these scenarios with real context and specifics. Eddie repeatedly clarified that he, as the lead spokesperson of management’s bargaining committee, discusses and evaluates all proposals directly with senior leadership including our CEO. Management argues that our unique unwritten editorial guidelines make us an exception to industry-standard fair Just Cause. In reality, this argument protects their ability to invent and arbitrarily enforce those guidelines to then discipline and discharge workers as they see fit. What management fails to acknowledge is that the tenets of Just Cause embody the mission of our organization, the legacy of Thurgood Marshall, and the stories we tell. Fair Just Cause is the standard of fairness that we deserve in return. Following our Just Cause counter, we asked questions about the tumultuous state of healthcare and pressed management on the status of our Quotas and Metrics pr…✊ Just Cause / “Discipline and Discharge” Our initial Just Cause proposal – which relied on the industry-standard language “there shall be no discipline or dismissal without just and sufficient cause,” used by newsrooms including The New York Times, Reuters, and the Chicago Tribune – was countered by management with an alarming response in March. Their counter included loopholes allowing them to combine or even skip disciplinary steps and placed an incredibly high burden of proof on employees in the arbitration process, effectively making workers guilty until proven innocent. This is a regressive process, one that we rejected with our new counterproposal on Monday. Our counter enumerates the acceptable steps of progressive discipline and clarifies communication expectations. At its core, the counter relies on the seven tests of Just Cause. These tests already give supervisors the clear ability to discipline and terminate workers, as long as they follow due process. Management’s attempt to codify loopholes and undefined guidelines on top of these long-established legal tests is an unacceptable attempt to retain enormous subjective power to discipline and discharge workers. We remain committed to fair Just Cause and call on management to do the same. 🚑 Healthcare As you’re all aware, the cost of our United Health Care insurance plans provided by TriNet have increased for the second year in a row and the burden is being shouldered by employees. While we understand that the landscape of healthcare in America is complex, it’s insulting to sit across from management’s counsel and hear him insist that our care is not being downgraded. Many of our workers are now weighing major medical decisions – like how to continue to care for their families, if they can still afford to proceed with scheduled surgeries – against what would amount to a substantial pay cut. Any employee above the Basic EPO plan will have to cover 100% of the premium increase out of their own pocket, leading in some cases to out-of-pocket healthcare costs skyrocketing to more than $15,000 annually for members on the Standard Family plan. Management’s decision to shift extra costs onto employees punishes those with the most need, like people with families or chronic conditions, by allowing their premiums to increase by the greatest factor. And as workers making less money than managers, these costs are often even harder for us to absorb. Management insists that these changes are not a violation of status quo, because they have continued to contribute the same maximum dollar amount toward employee healthcare plans as they did before we began bargaining. It is the position of the workers of TMP that this constitutes a violation of status quo because our plan design, scope of coverage, and employee cost have all changed. The employer-covered healthcare the vast majority of us were promised in hiring has lost almost all of its value. Employees who paid nothing out of pocket in Fall 2024 for the UHC Standard plan are now offered the lesser UHC Basic plan for Fall 2026 unless they cover the difference out of pocket. This is a significant downgrade in standard of care for those who elect to remain on the employer-covered plan and a sharp cut in compensation…📈 Quotas & Metrics Management wholesale rejected our three previous proposals on Quotas and Metrics. When pressed again at the table on Monday about why, Eddie cited an earlier written rejection. He said if they did choose to respond, they would do so in the context of our Just Cause counterproposal. This is concerning as we believe any quotas, metrics or “expectations” for output may affect numerous aspects of our working conditions: workload, assignments, hours, etc., not just discipline. Eddie said that bargaining does not mean that they are required to offer us a counterproposal, only that they have to speak to their reasoning for rejecting proposals. Work Authorization We put down a counter on Work Authorization, which was formerly the Visas and Immigration proposal. We renamed the counter to better reflect the scope of the proposal, which isn’t limited to visas. In our newly proposed language, we responded to several of management’s concerns and refined the proposal to clarify required communication. We’ll wait to see how management responds. That’s all for updates today. Thanks to every worker who showed up in support of fair Just Cause, and to those who were sending support in our own channels. We’ll be back at the bargaining table next week on Thursday, August 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET.
ProPublica Guild@propublicaguild.org · 5d ago

🚨 WE HAVE A DEAL! After three years, in a major step forward for our members, we have ratified our first contract with @propublica.org’s management. We deeply appreciate everyone who supported us along the way. Here are some of our big wins👇

A graphic poster reads "We have a deal! The ProPublica Guild has reached a deal with ProPublica's management on our first contract and has voted to ratify it. Swipe for the highlights [pointing emoji].
Ryan Murphy@ryan.fail · 3w ago

Some newsrooms already do this! This is pretty much the reason we were able to get @themarshallproject.org on @standard.site so quickly, among many other CMS improvements. More technologists in newsrooms! You don’t have to let external developers make every product decision for you.

Mamdani’s PIT Crew sounds a lot like how a product team should work: directed groups of experts rapidly prototyping solutions to concretely defined problems anchored in real people’s needs. By doing it internally, he can make sure these solutions are built exactly the way the city needs, build institutional capacity and knowledge, and, theoretically at least, do it far more cheaply in the long run. As these sorts of civic measures succeed, I think (or, perhaps, I hope) we’ll see more newsrooms translate those outcomes to their own businesses and begin to understand that they need to prioritize technical capacity too. All the same reasons apply here.
Ben Werdmuller@werd.io · 3w ago

Zohran Mamdani has unveiled a radically collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach to building internal technology capacity. News has a lot to learn from it. werd.io/we-need-a-pi...

Marshall Project Guild@marshallprojectguild.org · last mo.

An update from the bargaining table: on 7/1 we put down two new proposals and two counters, and received one counter from management. Stay tuned for our next bargaining session on 7/27; we're inviting our CEO Katrice Hardy to the table to hear why our contract must include Just Cause protections.

Welcome back from the long weekend! Last Wednesday, we met management at the bargaining table to put down two new proposals on Intellectual Property and the Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment, as well as two counters. We received one counter from management. At our next bargaining session, we’ll return to the issue our workers have told us again and again matters most: Securing industry-standard Just Cause, with fair and transparent due process. We’d like to take this occasion to invite our CEO Katrice Hardy to join us at that bargaining session on July 27 at 11 a.m. Eastern to hear about why our contract must include fair Just Cause protections. We always welcome TMP leadership at the bargaining table, and would love to see more of that team beyond Eli, our CFO; Belal, the HR representative; and a rotating editor representative attend regularly, similar to how we broadly invite our own members. In this instance, we’d especially appreciate Katrice’s presence as we bargain over Just Cause, an issue at the heart of the employment practices of the organization and the policies that govern it as a business. 🚫 Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment We put down a new Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment proposal, which largely aims to codify our existing handbook policy. Additional language details the Guild’s role in the complaint process. We’ll wait for management’s response to this proposal. 🪧 No Strike / No Lockout We presented a counter No Strike / No Lockout proposal, which meets management on several key compromises but maintains our right to picket as well as our right to strike over an unfair labor practice (ULP), which is a strike specifically in response to an employer violation of the National Labor Relations Act. These are critical protections for our workers, which safeguard our fundamental First Amendment rights and our ability to meaningfully address ULPs for the duration of our contract. We’ll wait for management’s response to our counter.Bild📁 Personnel Files We put down a Personnel Files counter, which maintains that management must tell workers when discipline is added to their files and establishes a larger window to rebut discipline. Management accepted our proposal and we have reached a tentative agreement. 🪪 Visas and Immigration Previously, we put down a proposal on Visas and Immigration which called for management to proactively discuss visa and sponsorship options with non-citizen employees who need a work authorization. In the counter that management returned to us today, they struck several parts of this proposal with the reasoning that they aren’t willing to commit to speaking with employees about their immigration options without dedicated legal counsel, which they may or may not hire at their discretion. We’ll review this counter closely, and plan a response.
ProPublica Guild@propublicaguild.org · last mo.

We formed our union three years ago, but we still don’t have a contract. Our members are now releasing public testimonials to demand a FAIR CONTRACT NOW: www.propublicaguild.org/updates/vide...

ProPublica Guild Members Speak Out to Demand Fair Wages, AI Guardrails and Layoff Protections — ProPublica Guild

We recently passed the three-year anniversary of our staff unionizing. Through the power of our union, we’ve realized major wins, from stability in health insurance providers and the company covering ...

propublicaguild.org

Ryan Murphy@ryan.fail · 2mo ago

I guess Fox is obligated to defend the “hydration” breaks on behalf of Lenovo but do remember every time they pretend it’s hot in Seattle it is currently only 76 degrees at Lumen Field