Workers at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette go on strike

Subscribers to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did not find a newspaper on their front steps Thursday morning due to a strike by advertising, distribution and production workers.
The employees walked out after negotiations broke down between the newspaper’s management and union representatives last week over health care costs.
According to a news release from the Communications Workers of America, which represents the striking employees, the health insurance of the workers was terminated by Block Communications, the newspaper’s owner, on Saturday.
The union contends the Post-Gazette is refusing to pay an additional $19 per week per employee to maintain existing health care coverage.
Ed Mooney, vice president of the Communication Workers of America District 2-13, said in the news release, “They have shown our members nothing but disrespect. Enough is enough. We will stay on strike until the P-G recognizes our value to the paper and stops violating our rights.”
A statement released by Allison Latcheran, a spokeswoman for the Post-Gazette, countered that “several options” had been offered to its unions that would have ensured the continuation of health care coverage, including “a 9% wage increase and enrollment in the company’s health care plan, which currently covers 2,600 Block Communications employees, including several unions, company executives and staff at the Post-Gazette.”
The statement also said, “It is not clear why the proposal nor any of the others is unsatisfactory to the unions and their membership.”
The Post-Gazette’s journalists, editors, photographers and other newsroom personnel are not part of the strike, but they will be withholding their bylines in solidarity with the striking workers, according to a news release from the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, the union that represents newsroom workers. The guild accused Post-Gazette owners John Robinson Block and Allan Block of “(caring) more about pinching pennies than treating their employees fairly.”
Unionized employees at the Post-Gazette have been working without a contract for more than five years, and the battles between the unions and the paper’s owners have frequently been contentious. Workers at the newspaper say they have not received a raise in 16 years, and the differences between the Newspaper Guild and the Post-Gazette are being hashed out before the National Labor Relations Board.
Block Communications also owns The Blade in Toledo, Ohio. Both newspapers offer print editions two days a week, and offer online reporting on the other days of the week.