Dozens of New York Times employees have formed a group to take a stand on journalistic independence as concerns grow that the labor union that represents the Times and other outlets has veered toward advocacy.

The Times faction, which includes high-profile journalists such as Megan Twohey, Julian Barnes and Emily Bazelon, has created what it calls an “independence caucus” within the NewsGuild-CWA, the parent of the Times’s newsroom union that represents some 1,500 people at the publication.