A video of the chairman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s parent company swearing at a union representative and striking him with a bag of fast food was picked up by multiple news outlets as it continued to spread widely Tuesday.
Both Defector Media and WTAE covered the story of Block Communications Inc. CEO Allan Block responding angrily as NewsGuild worker Nolan Rosenkrans questioned him about the strike when the two had a chance encounter Sunday at an Ohio rest stop.
The video of Block swatting Rosenkrans with a bag of Wendy’s food and Rosenkrans’ subsequent conversation with Block’s wife, Susan Allan Block, has spread widely since it was first posted Monday. A TikTok of the incident had racked up nearly 270,000 views as of Tuesday evening, while videos on Twitter had combined for well over 100,000 views.
In an interview with Laura Wagner of Defector β founded in 2020 by former Deadspin journalists who quit en masse over conflict with the site’s new owners β Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh President Zack Tanner notes that “I think itβs pretty clear that when the CEO slaps a NewsGuild rep with a bag of hamburgers at an Ohio turnpike rest stop, theyβre paying attention.”
The Defector and WTAE articles circulated as striking Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh workers marked their 36th day on the picket line. PG distribution, production and advertising workers have been out for 48 days, as of Tuesday.
On the North Shore picket line, striking PG workers got a visit from their former colleague Lillian Thomas. Thomas is a former news editor at the PG who was forced out of the paper in late 2019, just months after helping to lead the PG’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Tree of Life massacre. Thomas, now the mid-U.S. bureau chief at the Wall Street Journal, is also the mother of striking PG sports copy editor SaΓΊl Berrios-Thomas.
Those on the picket line also enjoyed the last of some Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches sent to Pittsburgh by the Chicago News Guild. The sandwiches were a smash hit on the picket line when they first arrived earlier in November. The beef that wasn’t cooked up back then was frozen β and made its triumphant appearance Tuesday.
Even with Thanksgiving knocking on the door, striking workers are continuing preparations for a third round of contract negotiations with the PG, set for Dec. 6.
Alex is a digital news editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike.
