The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday filed an injunction to force the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to take back striking workers and return to the bargaining table in a nearly two-year strike that might be the longest in the city’s history.
The injunction in federal court encourages the Post-Gazette to return in good faith to negotiations and immediately rescind “the unilateral changes” it made in 2020 to the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s previous collective bargaining agreement, which ran from 2014 to 2017.
Whether ownership will adhere to the decision, remains to be seen.
In 2020, the news operation, founded in 1786, slashed wages, increased some employees’ health care insurance costs from $6,000 to $15,000 a year, and eliminated vacation time and sick leave for senior workers, said attorney Joseph Pass, who represents the unions.
The labor board’s injunction next heads to a District Court judge, who can schedule a hearing on whether striking workers are suffering “irreparable harm” and if federal court action could lead to a resolution.
If a judge rules in favor of the union, the Post-Gazette has the right to request a stay from that same judge and possibly appeal to a U.S. Circuit court, according to the Pittsburgh Union Progress.
The guild plans to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. Thursday near the Post-Gazette’s North Shore offices.
There are 29 editorial employees — from news and high-school sports reporters to design team members — still on the picket line today, said Zack Tanner, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh.
A total of 39 Guild-represented workers remain at or returned to the Post-Gazette, Tanner said. Several took jobs at other news outlets or left Pittsburgh to further their careers elsewhere.
Tanner estimates the newspaper has hired up to 27 staffers during the strike, which started in October 2022.
“We think this is not just the longest-running strike in the country,” Tanner said. “We think it’s the longest strike in Pittsburgh history.”
“This is a strike with an employer who doesn’t want a deal,” Pass added.
Post-Gazette Marketing Director Allison Latcheran in an email Thursday wrote: “The lawsuit is being reviewed by management but appears to be contrary to a recent NLRB Administrative Law Judge’s decision. The Administrative Law Judge found that the Post-Gazette bargained in good faith over health care.”
The Post-Gazette said, on its website, that it has “an average paid circulation of more than 83,000.” Print editions are published twice weekly — on Thursdays and Sundays.
Pass estimated the Post-Gazette has spent $4 million to $10 million, much of it on lawyers, since the strike began.
“They could’ve resolved this for a fraction of that,” he said.
The Labor Notes, a digital newspaper, said in February that the Post-Gazette labor dispute is the longest media strike in the digital age. Since the strike started, several Guild members have operated their own online news site, the Pittsburgh Union Progress.
The Communications Workers of America, which represents Post-Gazette strike workers including the mailers, advertising staff, and the Newspaper Guild journalists, did not respond Thursday to phone calls or emails seeking comment.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.