On Tuesday, October 18, striking Post-Gazette journalists and editors marked one year on the picket line.
On October 6, 2022, workers with Communications Workers of America (CWA) Locals 14842 and 14827, Teamsters Local 205/211 and Pressmen's Union Local 24M/9N voted to strike. Twelve days later, they were joined by journalists, editors and advertising staff, represented by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, who voted to strike by a razor-thin margin, after the CWA told them to join their colleagues or risk losing their union charter.
Workers have been without a contract since 2017. In January, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge ruled that the Post-Gazette "didn’t negotiate in good faith, illegally imposed working conditions and unlawfully surveilled workers engaged in union activities." PG ownership, Toledo-based Block Communications, appealed the NLRB ruling in March.
The striking workers' demands: "reinstate health care coverage to their colleagues, restore the guild’s old contract from 2017, and start bargaining in good faith for a new contract."
According to WESA, new workers have taken on some two dozen striking workers' jobs. If the NLRB's ruling is upheld and an injunction issued, those who crossed the picket line would have to return their positions to the striking workers whose jobs they took.
On October 6, 2023, striking workers were joined by prominent local politicians, including Senator John Fetterman; Reps. Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee; Mayor Ed Gainey, and several other state representatives and city and county councilpeople, at a rally outside Post-Gazette offices in the North Shore.
In a statement to WTAE, a Post-Gazette spokesperson said the paper is "optimistic that a resolution to the current work stoppage will be found soon and appreciate the Herculean efforts of our employees who continue to work.”
Reporting by Angela Fu for Poynter and Jillian Forstadt for 90.5 WESA.
MORE: Here’s what Stephen Karlinchak, the striking Post-Gazette librarian, has to say about one year on strike. And lastly, Delaney Parks, who passed on an internship with the Post-Gazette in favor of one with the Union Progress strike paper, wrote about her “union girl summer” for 34th Street.
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Publisher's Note: In solidarity with striking Newspaper Guild workers, the Pittsburgh Independent does not include coverage from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in its news recaps.
