Pittsburgh newspaper workers join strike over unfair labor practices | US unions
More than 100 workers, represented by five Pittsburgh Post-Gazette unions, are currently on strike for unfair labor practices, including manufacturing, distribution, advertising and accounts receivable workers.
The strike began after Brock Communications, which is owned by the Brock family, which runs the paper, refused to pay an additional $19 a week per employee to maintain existing insurance. It was after the employee’s health insurance was terminated on the first of the month.
“Having health insurance is one of the most important parts of being middle class,” said Kitsy Higgins, an advertising executive who has worked for the Post-Gazette for a year.
Higgins said the newspaper’s management tried to get employees to accept a health insurance plan with a $14,000 deductible, but turned it down because it was out of reach.
“It is a shame that Brock Communications, a multi-million dollar company, has not invested in the people who create this award-winning newspaper. “I’m putting money in lawyers. If they had invested money in the workers, we wouldn’t have had this strike and I would have been in business,” Higgins added. We will continue to strike until a fair deal is reached.”
Strikes have been unfolding in the US media industry, with major job cuts over the past decade, with newspapers particularly hard hit.
Post-Gazette workers claim they have been working without a union contract since March 2017 and have not received a raise in 16 years.
“We had no choice but to strike,” said James VanLandingham, a 28-year postman at the Post-Gazette. “Over the years, they have always paid for our medical bills. After our senior on the block died, two nephews took over and it all went downhill. Completely ignored the employee.”
VanLandingham says local unions have pulled ads from newspapers, giving subscribers and advertisers boycott The newspaper will not be published until the workers’ demands have been met and management has negotiated in good faith for a new union contract.
workers too launch As an alternative to the Post-Gazette during the strike, the publication of the strike, the Pittsburgh Union Progress.
In Washington, DC, the paper’s DC bureau chief Ashley Murray joined dozens of supporters in a picket protest at the Capitol on October 25.
“I’d rather be in the halls of Congress today interviewing lawmakers or working on a story about the midterm elections in two weeks,” Murray said to his supporters. have refused to come to the negotiating table and make deals, so my colleagues are picketing in Pittsburgh instead of reporting, taking pictures or designing pages for daily newspapers.”
the newspaper recently won an award injunction A picketer outside the Butler Eagle, a local newspaper that crossed the strike line to oppose striking workers at the Butler County Courthouse and continue the curtailed service of the striking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette activities. limited the number of
“Brock hasn’t responded to anything. Our union has reached out to them many times since the strike began,” Van Landingham said. “We just want the public to know how disrespectful Brock is. In my family, I am the third generation employee. Been faithfully employed for over a year.We enjoy handing out newspapers, but we don’t mind blocks.”
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette spokesperson commended the court’s injunction against Picketer in a Nov. 1 email, saying:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/11/pittsburgh-post-gazette-strike Pittsburgh newspaper workers join strike over unfair labor practices | US unions