Striking Pittsburgh news workers take their cause to billboards around city

Workers from five unions that have been on strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for 17 months put their cause on billboards around the city.

The billboards feature Kitsy Higgins and Jordan Pass, of the typographical (advertising) and Teamsters unions, respectively. Those are two of four production unions that went on strike on Oct. 12, 2022, over a dispute that left those workers without health care coverage.

“Post-Gazette: Restore our healthcare,” the billboards read. “End the strike now.”

The photo was made by Steve Mellon, one of the journalists in the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, who went on its own unfair labor practice strike on Oct. 18, 2022.

Higgins says being on billboards “feels a bit surreal,” but, “I am extremely happy and honored to be on the front lines of the strike. We are now on day 528 [Sunday], and yet we are still stronger than ever, and we will not back down!”

Pass, a proud third-generation Teamster and PG employee, says, “It seems petty and nonsensical for the PG to refuse to pay $19 per week increase in healthcare for its condensed group of workers, but still pay thousands upon thousands on attorneys, scab workers and a security team. It feels like they just want us gone, but the PG has underestimated the strength and tenacity of our unions. The true shame of it all is that a lot of workers were dedicated to their jobs at the PG.”

The billboards are signed by the logos of the Communications Workers of America — it represents the typos, mailers and the journalists — as well as the logos of the Teamsters’, journalists’ and pressmen’s unions.

Look for the mostly digital billboards on Banksville Road, McKnight Road, the Homestead Grays Bridge, the Parkway West, Bigelow Boulevard and Route 28.

They’re part of an advertising campaign to tell the strikers’ stories on digital and streaming platforms as well as radio.