Striking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers got a visit from a few allies Tuesday while also spending plenty of time planning their future work for the Pittsburgh Union Progress.
On a chilly Tuesday morning, newsroom and advertising workers on the picket line outside the PG’s North Shore office were joined by a handful of their union siblings from the United Steelworkers.
The USW has been a strong supporter of the striking PG workers since the strike began in October. In addition to picket line visits, the union has made major contributions to the workers’ striker fund and donated space in its Downtown Pittsburgh building to serve as “strike headquarters.”
“This strike has surfaced intense solidarity from union colleagues all across the country, but I can’t go on enough about the support from the Steelworkers,” Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh President Zack Tanner told the Union Progress last week when workers moved into strike HQ.
Later Tuesday, striking workers’ picket line heater ran out of fuel. Thankfully, guild member Susan Banks brought hot coffee and doughnuts to warm up picketers.
Meanwhile, Union Progress editor Bob Batz Jr. led the first PUP meeting held at strike HQ.
He was joined by a host of PUP reporters, editors and photographers to make some short- and long-term plans for the striking workers’ publication.
Those plans include advertising, which the publication is happy to accept via its striking advertising worker A J. Scarpaci, who joined the group at this meeting and joined his Typos colleagues in the news workers’ bigger, long-term efforts. That already has resulted in several ads on PUP’s homepage, which are set to grow soon.
Alex is a digital news editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike.
