Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Staff Authorizes Strike

PITTSBURGH, PA — The newsroom staff of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has voted 88-31 to allow union leaders to call a strike at the newspaper.

Authorization for a strike at the Post-Gazette must now be approved by the executive council of the local’s union, the NewsGuild. Approval there would then proceed to Communications Workers of America President Christopher M. Shelton, who could authorize a strike.

The guild website contends it has been attempting to negotiate a new contract with the Post-Gazette for more than three years during which time the newspaper’s attorney has bargained in bad faith. The company’s attorney, Richard Lowe, declared a negotiations impasse. The Guild informed him the sides were nowhere near an impasse and would meet at any time.

According to the union, Lowe on July 27 unilaterally imposed working conditions, based on parts of the company’s final contract offer, eliminating major tenets of the expired contract under which union members had been working. Subsequently, the Guild filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board based on bad faith bargaining, unlawful declaration of an impasse and unilateral imposition of working conditions.