Our phones at PUP blew up Thursday morning with messages that JD Vance, the dude who wrote a book trashing the good people of Appalachia and then became Donald Trump’s running mate, had crossed a picket line. So JD is a scab. Big surprise, right? It took us a moment to realize it was our picket line everyone was talking about.
Perfect. Last week we raised a toast to mark our second complete year on strike. (We toasted with the hard stuff; two years of fighting an employer who flouts labor law is exhausting.) This week, a man yearning to be a heartbeat from the presidency thumbs his nose at us by writing an op-ed, published Thursday, for our union-busting bosses at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Can working people in this town get a break?
We didn’t read JD’s piece, by the way. We don’t read scab pieces in a scab newspaper.
But some journalists and outlets, such as the Huffington Post and The New Republic, picked up the news and spanked JD.
By early afternoon, our humble little strike publication found itself in the middle of an online firestorm. The election is now 11 days way, so everyone is on the lookout for clues as to where candidates really stand, as opposed to where those same candidates say they stand. In this light, JD Vance’s actions made a pretty clear statement. We’re thrilled to play a role in providing such illumination in this historic moment, especially when we didn’t really have to do all that much.
Among those who slammed Vance and jumped to our defense was The NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss, who in a news post on that union’s website said, “JD Vance has crossed a very obvious picket line by striking Americans. And JD Vance is a scab just like anybody else who crosses a picket line.”
Schleuss added that, “By crossing our picket line, Vance has aligned himself with the lawbreakers who run the Post-Gazette. It’s a slap in the face to the workers who have made incredible sacrifices to fight against the company’s illegal actions and gone 24 months without a paycheck.”
He encourages people to donate to the Pittsburgh striker fund.
Communications Workers of America District 2-13 Vice President Mike Davis also weighed in, noting that some of the striking workers have a hearing on their situation in federal court Monday: “Working people in Pennsylvania are watching to see whose side J.D. Vance is really on, and his actions today spoke volumes. Just like Donald Trump, J.D. Vance is a scab.”
This was one of those cases when our supporters have our backs. Everyone from a U.S. senator and two members of Congress to other labor unions and local college students have weighed in, many of them lifting up the strikers in addition to having fun trashing Vance. The action on X, at least before it devolves into wisecracks and name-calling along party lines, is a good and still growing read.
The Union Progress’ Bob Batz Jr. contributed.
Steve is a photojournalist and writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he is currently on strike and working as a Union Progress co-editor. Reach him at smellon@unionprogress.com.