The Communications Workers of America union announced Thursday that striking production and advertising workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have accepted a buyout offer. The buyouts come after the Post-Gazette outsourced production of its print edition to the Butler Eagle.
Union workers, therefore, have no work to return to and opted to negotiate an agreement to receive 26 weeks of severance pay for all workers and additional compensation for commission-based staff in exchange for dropping all pending unfair labor practice charges and dissolving their organization.
31 full and part-time workers first went on strike in October 2022 over a health care insurance dispute.
Journalists and newsroom staff represented by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh joined the strike a few weeks later and are the last union local to remain on what is so far a 29-month-long strike.
"I am extremely proud to have stood on strike with my siblings in each of the unions at the Post-Gazette,” said John Santa, striking design editor and Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh-CWA member in a news release. “My hope is that they receive the best deal possible for themselves and their families and are able to move on after being treated so unfairly by the company for such a long time."
The local Teamsters union which was among the three unions that initially led the strike against the Post-Gazette voted to accept payment and dissolve itself as part of a settlement almost a year ago.
The labor dispute at the Post-Gazette began in 2020 when management stopped bargaining and made changes to workers’ conditions including taking away vacation, eliminating short-term disability plans and putting them on a health care plan that cost families as much as an additional $13,000 per year, according to the Newspaper Guild.
“I feel extremely proud of my fellow employees who had the courage to go and stay on strike,” Kitsy Higgins, a member of the Pittsburgh Typographical Union told her fellow strikers. “We are obviously disappointed by this outcome but I’m happy to say that we did what was in our power to fight for workers’ rights. We cannot thank the supporters enough who helped us over the last few years.”
Meanwhile, Post-Gazette journalists and other staff await a ruling on an injunction filed late in 2024 that could fast-track enforcement of rulings against the newspaper and get striking workers back on the job.
If a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approves the injunction, the Post-Gazette would have to restore the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s previous contract, which includes paying for the newsroom workers’ health insurance. It would also require management to negotiate in good faith with the union for a new one.
That ruling from the appeals court is expected to drop early next week.
