PUP’s tale is swagging

“Above the fold” is an old newspaper phrase that describes where editors placed the day’s most important stories: at the top of the front page, above the midline where newspapers are typically folded.

Pittsburgh news strikers recently added a new twist on that expression by demonstrating they’re not “above the folding.” It happened at their HQ, a Downtown suite lovingly loaned by our friends at the United Steelworkers, where tables were piled with brand-new Pittsburgh Union Progress T-shirts.

Two versions of T-shirts are the designs of PUP’s striking page designer and illustrator Jennifer Kundrach and feature our strike “paper” mascot, the Newshound, on the back of a black shirt as well as on the front of a white shirt in a colorful foursome inspired by the work of Pittsburgh artist Andy Warhol.

“Everyone really seems to love the Newshound, so I was excited to work on some PUP shirt designs,” Kundrach says. “In particular I wanted to make one that was a little more playful, with a nod to something unique to Pittsburgh. After playing around with a few ideas, and some helpful feedback from the group, we landed on the colorful Warhol-inspired design printed on the white T-shirts.”

The strikers are offering the shirts to supporters for $20 donations to their Pittsburgh Striker Fund, which goes to support their financial needs as the unfair labor practice strike vs. the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues into its 21st month.

The swag side hustle works like this: People donate here and forward their donation receipt to pghguild@gmail.com, then order their shirt or shirts on this Strike Solidarity T-shirt order form page.

The strike mess is proving difficult to sort out, but not this mess of shirts, which striker Steve Mellon’s daughter Jessie tidied up, teaching her dad and others a neat way to sort and fold the shirts so they’re ready to be tucked into envelopes and mailed.

We’ll be there again this week. We’re folding shirts, but we’re not folding on the strike.