As their unfair labor practices strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette hit the two-year, 11-month mark, journalists of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh sent a brief update to their supporters that “we are not just sitting idly by and waiting for the court decision, which we strongly believe will be in our favor.
“We are making plans for what we will need to do to make a strike victory count, both for ourselves and this community we strive to serve,” continued the Thursday morning email blast written by the union local’s First Vice President Ed Blazina.
The journalists are continuing to wait for rulings from a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia — on the National Labor Relations Board’s case for the strikers, which the company appealed, and on the NLRB’s petition for the company to be held in contempt for not following the Third Circuit judges’ order to restore health insurance the company illegally took away from its workers in 2020.
The health care issue precipitated the strike by the newspaper’s production unions, which the journalists joined on Oct. 18, 2022. The Newspaper Guild is the last union local continuing what is the longest ongoing strike in the country.
After hearing oral arguments in July, the judges sent the NLRB’s case to the Third Circuit’s chief mediator in August for a confidential session, but as Blazina updated supporters, “Despite our and your best efforts beforehand, mediation did not result in strike settlement. There will be no more mediation sessions.” There’s also no timeframe for when the court will rule.
In the meantime, the journalists invited more supporters to join its striker and community member working group, which meets at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. And they invited people to support the strikers by purchasing the new Pittsburgh Union Progress T-shirt, designed by striker Jennifer Kundrach.
A couple of strikers, including Blazina, spent some of Thursday afternoon working on mailing shirts to supporters, the ranks of which include the many who gave donations and shared solidarity during the recent Communications Workers of America Convention in Pittsburgh.
“In case the court hasn’t ruled on our case yet, we also are developing plans to acknowledge the third anniversary of the strike next month,” Blazina concluded in his email. “We will let you know how you can participate as we get closer to that anniversary.
“We appreciate you keeping us strong.”
The PUP is the publication of the striking workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
