Post-Gazette Staffers Mount Effort To Save Doomed Newspaper

PITTSBURGH, PA — Dozens of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporters are calling on new elections for its union in a last-ditch effort to keep the 240-year-old newspaper afloat.

A majority of the P-G's bargaining unit issued a statement Thursday calling for new Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh leadership elections, accusing the union of misrepresenting members' views for many years. The statement suggested that new leadership might help heal the wounds between the union and P-G owners Block Communications following a bitter three-year strike by some employees that ended in November.

"We would approach negotiations differently with BCI, or any future owner or owners of the Post-Gazette," the statement asserted. "To be clear: Our rights and benefits as workers are important, but in today’s media landscape, we must be realistic, not idealistic."

The statement was signed by 49 editorial employees.

Citing staggering and ongoing financial losses, Toledo-based Block announced on Jan. 7 that the Post-Gazette will publish its last edition and cease operations on May 3. Block said the newspaper has lost more than $350 million over the last 20 years.

The announcement came just hours after Block failed to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a lower court order mandating the company to make changes to union employee health insurance coverage.

According to the statement, when the strike ended, returning union members represented only about a quarter of the bargaining unit. The remaining three quarters either resigned from the union and crossed the picket line or joined the paper as new staffers.

"The Guild’s effort was never as broadly supported as it claimed publicly," the statement contended.

Additionally, the statement noted that Guild members have plans to launch a competing and/or successor outlet while ignoring crucial current issues such as severance. "Those focused on things beyond the P-G should not continue to represent those of us who wish to preserve it as constituted."

The editorial staffers called on Block to give them time to prevail, either through a sale or an extension of the closure date.

"We want to change the tone of our union’s relationship with the Post-Gazette from bitterly adversarial to productive," the statement asserted.

"We don’t expect to agree with every company proposal, but the era of character assassination and attempts at public humiliation must and will end. We will replace it with a mission of shared purpose to serve our city and region."

There was no immediate reaction to the statement from Block or the Guild.