Here at Daily Labor Report, we cover collective bargaining and labor-management relations issues in many different industries, but there are some that come up more frequently than others. Health care is a big one, as are transportation workers of all stripes and people who work in manufacturing.

But this week we covered an ongoing bargaining dispute involving workers whose product is seen by millions, even though most of them probably don't know about the disagreements. I'm talking about employees of the New York Times.

More than 1,000 employees working on both the editorial and business sides of the venerable newspaper are represented by the Newspaper Guild of New York, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America. They've been in contract talks with the paper for more than a year and half, and this week the union staged brief rallies outside the Times's Midtown Manhattan offices.

Ironically enough, I first found out about the latest developments in the negotiations from the Twitter feed of Steven Greenhouse, who covers labor issues for the Times. He linked to a letter posted online and signed by nearly 300 Times employees, which urged management to reconsider its wage proposals. "The company's negotiating goal of sub-inflation raises would perpetuate an era of shrinking compensation," the letter said. The union also was encouraging employees to raise awareness of the issues on Twitter. 

According to New York Guild President Bill O'Meara, the Times is offering wage freezes for 2011 and 2012, 1 percent hourly pay increases in both 2013 and 2015, and a 1.5 percent increase in 2014, while the Guild has proposed wage increases of 3.5 percent to 4 percent per year.

The parties recently agreed to bring in a federal mediator to assist in the contract talks. A Times spokeswoman told BNA, "We remain committed to reaching a fair contract settlement with the Guild, which is why we recently agreed to mediation. Our goal is to get to a settlement soon so that we can return our complete focus to producing the quality journalism that readers of The New York Times have come to expect." More bargaining sessions are scheduled for next week.

In other recent labor news:

• A state court judge in Indiana permitted the United Steelworkers union to proceed with a court challenge to that state's recently enacted right-to-work law.

• Workers at a Bronx car wash voted in favor of representation by the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, becoming the second group of New York City car wash employees to do so.

• Nearly 3,000 paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and support staff employed by American Medical Response in California and New England recently voted to have a different union represent them, but the incumbent union has filed objections in the largest of the elections.