MAUMEE, Ohio — And, they’re off!
Members of The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh on strike against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette along with a couple of community supporters left the starting gates around noon Saturday from Pittsburgh and Wooster, Ohio, to stage a rally at the annual Maumee Valley Country Day School Gala.
The reason: to pressure Diana Block – an alum, significant donor, former board member and parent of a son who attends the school – to use her influence as a Block Communications Inc. board member to help end the 2½-plus-year strike by the journalists at the PG.
The strikers recently received a favorable ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on a 10(e) injunction to restore the health care the PG illegally took from its employees and return to the bargaining table. The health care benefits would revert to those under the contract that expired in March 2017. The company asked for both a clarification and a re-hearing of the ruling, but the strikers are confident that the court will enforce the injunction soon, and they want the entire contract to be restored.
Strikers and supporters made calls and sent texts and emails to the school concerning Diana Block’s involvement, all of those were ignored by school officials until about 24 hours before the rally.
Early Friday night, the school sent a letter to the Guild and the personal email accounts of two strikers. The letter stated that “you are hereby directed to immediately cease and desist from any further harassment of Maumee Valley trustees, employees, representatives, and from any further protest activity at Maumee Valley events or properties.”
After a brief and very civil encounter with a local sheriff at the start on Saturday, the rally took place across the road from the entrance of The Stables, a banquet venue in Lucas County just southwest of downtown Toledo. The gala, themed “Off to the Races” and taking place a week before this year’s Kentucky Derby, is a fundraising event for the school, and the goal was to take in about $200,000 this year, according to flyers for the shindig.
The festivities, which included about 150 to 200 people early Saturday night, attract some of the wealthiest members of the community, including the Blocks. The school is celebrating its 140th anniversary in Toledo and “cultivates an inclusive community of intellectual excellence where learners creatively explore their passions and boldly inspire positive change in the world,” according to the mission statement on the school’s website.
Diana Block’s values and those of the school clearly don’t align.
Those who attended the rally made the four-hour trip by car to the gala. It included TNG President Zack Tanner, first vice president Ed Blazina, unit delegate Jen Kundrach, NewsGuild staffer Jacob Klinger, Erin Hebert, Rob Joesbury, Solomon Gustavo and Randy Stoernell. The rally also included community supporter Chris Strayer and Tadhg Larabee, who is documenting the strike as a freelancer for The Baffler, America’s leading voice of incisive and unconventional left-wing political criticism, cultural analysis, short stories, poems and art. Strikers (and supporters) brought colorful handmade signs and leaflets for the rally in hopes of getting Diana Block’s attention. There was no sign of her, but the signs caught the attention of most of the gala attendees as they entered the venue parking lot.
Unfortunately, only one Diana leaflet was passed into a car window because of the circumstances, but the woman who accepted the leaflet said, “Yeah, we know who she is.”
One of the highlights and the most surprising move of the rally was that the band that was playing at the gala strolled outside before the event started and walked to the other edge of the road to talk with the strikers. Two of the band members engaged in a conversation with the strikers, wondering why the rally was occurring. Band members then were handed a leaflet each. The one band member asked, “Is this the Blocks of The Toledo Blade?” After affirmation, he said, “I’ve heard about them.”
The situation got a little tense when a private security officer asked the band to return to the venue and said, “… Don’t encourage [the strikers].” It escalated even further when the band hesitated and the officer then tersely told them, “You know why you are here? Go back inside and play some music!”
The rally lasted nearly two hours.
Randy is a sports editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike.