The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a case in which the company attempted to bar striking union workers from picketing at a South Side newspaper distribution facility.
The order leaves in place a July ruling from the state Superior Court denying the Post-Gazette a permanent injunction against picketing at Gateway View Plaza on West Carson Street because the striking workers had a right to be there and the newspaper could not provide evidence that the picketers had broken any laws while they were protesting.
Workers from five unions that had been on strike against the Post-Gazette since October 2022 picketed at the facility on distribution nights for months, at times under a heavy police and private security presence. Four of the five unions remain on strike over what they contend are numerous violations of federal labor law by the newspaper.
Steven Winslow, the attorney who represented the unions in the case, said the Supreme Court’s decision means the Post-Gazette will have to pay the union’s legal fees. That dollar figure was not immediately known.
The Gateway View Plaza injunction request was not the first time that the Post-Gazette tried to stop striking workers from picketing at locations where the newspaper is produced.
The state Superior Court in November 2023 overruled a Butler County court decision that limited picketing by striking workers at the Butler Eagle, where the Post-Gazette has paid to have its newspaper printed during the strike.
Workers have picketed at multiple Post-Gazette production and distribution locations in Allegheny, Butler and Washington counties during the strike, which surpassed 800 days in December. It is the longest ongoing strike in America.
The PUP is the publication of the striking workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
