Labor board rules against Post-Gazette in nearly 2-year employee strike

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette refused to bargain in good faith with the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and unilaterally changed workers’ employment conditions, the National Labor Relations Board said in a decision announced Friday.

A petition for an injunction was filed in August to force the Post-Gazette to take back workers who have been on strike for nearly two years and return to the bargaining table.

The news outlet in 2020 cut 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, according to attorney Joseph Pass, who represents the unions.

The National Labor Relation Boards’ decision, which aligns with an administrative law judge ruling from January 2023, reaffirms what the Newspaper Guild has fought for, Pass said.

In a new release the NLRB issued Friday, it states:

“PG Publishing failed and refused to bargain in good faith with Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh/CWA Local 38061 on a successor collective-bargaining agreement, unilaterally implemented changes to unit employees’ terms and conditions of employment and appeared to photograph unit employees engaged in union activities.

“In addition to a cease-and-desist order, the Board ordered PG Publishing to bargain with the union upon request, submit bargaining progress reports every 30 days and rescind unilateral changes to unit employees’ terms and conditions of employment implemented in 2020 (if the union requests).”

The Board further ordered that the employer compensate the union for all bargaining expenses incurred while the employer engaged in bad-faith bargaining through Sept. 8, 2020; compensate employee negotiators for lost earnings while attending bargaining sessions; make employees whole for the unlawful unilateral changes to their terms and conditions of employment; and make delinquent contribution to applicable benefit funds.”

“Certainly it means (the Newspaper Guild) has been vindicated and that the Post-Gazette has acted just as we thought and have been saying they have acted or have behaved, which is nothing but bad-faith bargaining with no intention of ever reaching an agreement,” Pass said.

“It’s an attempt to try and destroy the union, and along with that they’re destroying the paper.”

The decision could cost the Post-Gazette millions, he said.

Tracey DeAngelo, Post-Gazette president and general manager, and Stan Wischnowski, executive editor and vice president, could not be immediately reached for comment Friday night.

Zack Tanner, president of the Newspaper Guild, said the ruling is validating for the striking workers.

“It’s really substantial. This decision came out fairly late in the day on a Friday, but still striking members are still very energized by this ruling,” he said. “This is something that we’ve been waiting for for a long time.”

Workers have been on strike for 715 days. There are 29 editorial employees currently on strike, Tanner said.

The Post-Gazette has 30 days to file an appeal to a U.S. Circuit court, which Tanner believes is likely.

“While the striking workers across four different unions have continued to fight the illegal actions of the Post-Gazette, the Post-Gazette and the Block family could have ended this at any point and stopped wasting money on this, but they’ve chosen to fight,” he said. “We are up for that fight, and we’re going to win this fight. And whatever money the Post-Gazette wants to burn isn’t our problem.”