As the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s strike against the Post-Gazette entered its second week, workers on the picket line got a visit from two prominent political figures — and a show of solidarity from some fellow journalists.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and U.S. House candidate Chris Deluzio both stopped by the North Shore on Monday afternoon to offer their support and chip in some pizza and cookies to the ever-growing stack of strike sustenance.
Deluzio arrived at about 3 p.m. and spent more than an hour chatting with PG workers from the newsroom, distribution, production and advertising unions that are on unfair labor practice strikes.
He also spoke to assembled TV crews from local news stations and posed for a few photos.
Just after 4 p.m., Casey arrived with several boxes of pizza, shook dozens of hands and offered words of support to the striking workers, reassuring them that he had their backs and believed in their cause.
Earlier Monday, the editorial board of The Pitt News — the campus newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh — announced that it would stop doing business with the Post-Gazette and the Butler Eagle for at least the duration of the strike.
The Pitt News had previously paid the PG to print its weekly print newspaper; when the Newspaper Guild’s sister unions began their strike on Oct. 6, The Pitt News began a short-term contract with the Butler Eagle.
But then the Butler Eagle began printing scab editions of the PG during the strike.
The Pitt News editors, in an editorial backing the striking PG workers, said they made the decision to sever ties with the Butler Eagle “after lots of conversation” among the paper’s editorial, business and professional workers.
“No one should have to worry about their financial situation or health benefits being taken away while doing one of the most important jobs to keep our democracy afloat,” the editorial board wrote. “Local journalists and other staff members who keep the Post-Gazette running are extremely important, and they deserve living wages and fair contracts.”
Striking Post-Gazette photo editor Melissa Tkach and photographer Steve Mellon also stopped by a picket line of local Starbucks workers who began a strike Monday morning.
Workers who are organizing with Starbucks Workers United have joined striking Post-Gazette workers on the picket line on the North Shore, and at Saturday’s rally outside PG publisher John Robinson Block’s Shadyside mansion.
Alex is a digital news editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike.
