It was shortly after 6 p.m. on Dec. 12 when Zack Tanner, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, posted a cryptic message on the striking union’s Slack channel imploring everyone to attend the group’s daily virtual check-in meeting the following morning.
Tanner gave no hint of what the announcement was, other than to say it had nothing to do with negotiations or the variety of cases slowly meandering through the federal courts aiming to attain a fair settlement for the journalists, advertising representatives, mailers and press operators of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who for a long time now have been conducting the longest ongoing strike in America.
Guesses in reply to the message ranged from elves delivering an unsavory present to the company’s union-busting attorneys, to a striker taking a leading role in a Hallmark movie titled “I’ll Be on Strike for Christmas. Again,” to PG Publisher John Robinson Block being visited by three ghosts and having a Scrooge-like epiphany to see the error of his parsimonious ways.
None of the hypotheses proved accurate, save for the holiday theme because Tanner’s news concerned a great gift just in time for Christmas, or, perhaps, a miracle before Hanukkah.
The next morning, Vicki Crosson, a senior software engineer for The New York Times and unit secretary for the Times’ Tech Guild, appeared on the Pittsburgh guild’s Zoom session to announce that her union – fresh off a successful unfair labor practice strike of its own in November – would donate the remainder of the money raised during its work stoppage to the Pittsburgh strikers, a total of about $114,000.
“When we heard how many [in Pittsburgh] are still on strike, still holding the line, we were really just stunned by the solidarity,” Crosson said in a phone interview a few days later. “We really strongly wanted to give it all to the Pittsburgh strike fund. It’s really impressive; we were really blown away.”
Any offering would have been greatly appreciated by the approximately 60 remaining strikers now in the midst of their third consecutive holiday season on the picket line as they fight against a variety of illegal actions by the Post-Gazette. But the amount of money from the Tech Guild rendered the often boisterous group in Pittsburgh momentarily speechless. The looks of amazement from the strikers who had turned on their cameras, however, said it all.
“When I heard upwards of $100,000, I didn’t actually know how to react to it,” Tanner said. “If $8,000 or $10,000 was going to floor me, $100,000-plus certainly was. It’s an actual shocking number, isn’t it? It’s generosity to the tune that in my life I don’t know if I’ve seen. And I think if you look at how all of the strikers reacted when Vicki came on to tell us this news, I feel like I’m not the only one who feels that way.”
While some of the money from the Tech Guild will help supplement a modest holiday stipend for the strikers, the vast majority will directly cover essentials for them, such as housing costs like rent or mortgage fees, utility bills, vehicle payments and food. Financial needs for the strikers fluctuate from month to month, but this lump sum will likely help them continue with strength well into 2025, if need be.
Supporters from across the world have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the effort since the strike began in October 2022, but most of that money has been spent out of necessity. With the Tech Guild’s donation, the strike fund is at its healthiest since the summer of 2023 when the delegates on the floor of the 79th Communications Workers of America Convention in St. Louis rose in unanimous support of a $300,000 allocation from the CWA Member Relief Fund to the strike.
The donation would have been staggering if it had come on day one, but coming around day 800 of the strike in an hour of growing need was a major boost to those on the picket line.
“This is a gesture of solidarity that I don’t think I or anybody else on strike is ever going to forget for the rest of our lives,” Tanner said. “That’s how consequential this donation is, and that’s how much it keeps all of us running and keeps our heads held high as we fight this fight.”
Crosson said the Tech Guild raised $261,000 during its eight-day strike, which helped the union secure a first contract that includes enhanced job protections, wage increases and other benefits. The tech workers took inspiration from the fight being waged in Pittsburgh as they battled for their contract and prepared for their own strike, according to Crosson.
Workers from the Tech Guild, who build the Times’ cooking app, Wordle and other popular products, intended to give any of the money that was left over to another cause, potentially splitting it multiple ways. But hearing of the need and the imperishable solidarity in Pittsburgh, they decided to direct it all to the Post-Gazette strikers.
“Seeing that the strike fund was so empowering for members of our unit, who are obviously in a very different situation, it felt particularly meaningful to be able to pay it forward like that,” she said.
Crosson said she was moved to tears at the reaction on the Zoom call from the Pittsburgh strikers, which eventually evolved from a stunned silence into expressions of deep gratitude by those who unmuted themselves or typed their appreciation into the group chat.
Jon Schleuss, president of NewsGuild-CWA, and Marian Needham, executive vice president of the NewsGuild, joined the Zoom call on the morning that Crosson announced the donation. The two had quietly suggested the Tech Guild contribute the funds to Pittsburgh, but the ultimate decision was made by the tech workers.
Schleuss said the solidarity from the tech workers, despite having little connection to the Pittsburgh strikers aside from belonging to the same parent union, CWA, exemplified the level of support across the guild not only for the strike in Pittsburgh but also in the labor movement in general.
“It shows that the guild doesn’t walk away from fights,” Schleuss said. “The only way we can do that is because we have so many members who care deeply about continuing that fight.”
Andrew writes about education and more for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at agoldstein@unionprogress.com.