Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Faces Contempt Charges in Losing Battle to Deny Strikers’ Health Care

 
John Santa, a member of NewsGuild-CWA Local 38061, discusses the ongoing strike against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Labor journalist Kim Kelly displays a T-shirt with the logo of the online strike newspaper, the Pittsburgh Union Progress, during a presentation at Mt. Lebanon Public Library on Monday. (Photo credit: Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Union Progress, member of NewsGuild-CWA.)

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is facing the prospect of daily, compounding fines over its refusal to comply with a court order to restore the health insurance plan that it illegally took away from NewsGuild-CWA members in 2020. Last week, the federal labor board requested that the Post-Gazette be held in civil contempt after refusing to comply with an injunction by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The fines could quickly outpace the costs of restoring the contract with NewsGuild-CWA and ending the strike.

“While NewsGuild workers pile up win after win, the Post-Gazette is continuing to defy federal law and play games with the court rather than give us what they owe us,” said NewsGuild-CWA Local 38061 President Zack Tanner. “Our demands to the company have been the same for years: restore our contract, including our health care, and stop breaking the law. The Blocks and their company could have avoided this mess entirely, and now they’re going to be forced to pay the price of their wrongdoing.”

NewsGuild-CWA editorial workers have been on strike since October 18, 2022, demanding that the Post-Gazette restore the terms of the union contract it illegally discarded in July of 2020. The terms include paid time off, short-term disability, and wage scales, in addition to health care.

In the third year of America’s longest-running strike, the striking editorial workers continue to demand dignified health care and the restoration of their union contract.

To support striking workers and families, you can do any of these three things today:

1. Donate to the strike fund that's used to pay for rent, utility bills, car repairs, groceries, and to keep their pets alive and well.
    
2. Order a T-shirt repping their strike publication, the Pittsburgh Union Progress. All proceeds go to the same strike fund.
    
3. Subscribe to the Pittsburgh Union Progress for free news on the strike, the lives of working people in Western PA and beyond, and more.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.