The striking workers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette got some sweet surprises on the picket line Thursday.
Ron Seibel, interim president of the Toledo NewsGuild, offered his support as he visited the picket line — and he brought a carload of baked goods from a recent bake-off held by the Toledo local.
Striking workers got to indulge their sweet tooth with brownies, cookies, muffins and other pastries that Seibel brought over from Toledo.
The Toledo NewsGuild represents workers at the Blade of Toledo, Ohio — the PG’s sister paper and the only other newspaper owned by Block Communications Inc.
Seibel, a sports editor at the Blade, discussed ways that Toledo guild members may be able to put pressure on the Block family. Those efforts will start as soon as Saturday at Toledo’s annual holiday parade, where Toledo NewsGuild members will pass out leaflets about the PG strike. (The Blade is a major sponsor of the parade.)
Striking workers also got a visit from a guest closer to home: Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam.
Hallam, a Democrat who serves as one of County Council’s two at-large members, joined the striking workers on the picket line and brought some sandwiches to keep them going.
She also sent a supportive tweet encouraging members of the community to support the striking workers by reading the Pittsburgh Union Progress and by donating to the CWA Pittsburgh Striker Relief Fund.
The Union Progress was also featured in an article written by Julie Reynolds for dfmworkers.org, which is part of the NewsGuild’s Save Local News project.
In the article, Reynolds discusses the history of strike publications — and notes PUP’s own story on the matter.
She also notes that PUP stories “contain the same level of information and context you’d expect from professional journalists.”
As interim PUP editor Bob Batz Jr. told Reynolds: “We’re taking our role very seriously, and we want to keep doing it. … If we can cover an important story that other outlets aren’t covering, we will try to. But we’re also not afraid to have a little fun.”
Alex is a digital news editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike.
