On Halloween, striking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers enjoyed some candy and light-hearted scares on the picket line.
At the picket line outside the PG’s North Shore newsroom, a few strikers donned costumes or festive masks. Page designer Natalie Duleba dressed as a witch, while sports copy editor Joe Knupsky donned a Joker mask and waved at passing drivers. Business reporter Patti Sabatini also creeped about in a spooky mask.
Over in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, a contingent of striking PG workers brought Halloween candy to Pitt’s Oakland campus Monday to protest the Post-Gazette’s spooky-scary working conditions.
The group “somehow managed to give out more pamphlets than candy,” reporter Joshua Axelrod noted on Twitter.
One Guild member took the strike inside by leaving pamphlets throughout the Cathedral of Learning.
Members of the Pitt community were supportive — so much so that the group blew through its stack of shiny brochures quickly, leaving Pitt an hour earlier than planned.
The group also stopped outside the nearby Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, where workers are represented by the United Museum Workers.
Meanwhile, the Butler Eagle — it has been printing scab editions of the Post-Gazette despite the workers’ strike — got a new decoration near its printing facility.
Scabby the inflatable union rat made his first appearance of the strike to remind workers and members of the public: Don’t cross the picket line.
Noelle Mateer contributed.
Alex is a digital news editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike.