CWA Post-Gazette strikers celebrated the NLRB’s action to enforce the law and protect their rights. | CWA
PITTSBURGH—Almost 22 months after the rightful owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The Pittsburgh News Guild and five other unions were forced to strike, but the workers won an important point when the National Labor Relations Board raised its strongest weapon against the law-breaking bosses: It sought a federal court injunction demanding the immediate reinstatement and compensation of the workers.
The panel’s request for a preliminary injunction under Rule 10(j) refers to cases in which such a court order “is necessary to protect the collective bargaining process and workers’ rights under the (National Labor Relations) Act and to ensure that the panel’s decisions are meaningful,” the NLRB’s order states.
The committee has only requested four such injunctions this year. They are sought and granted only when workers would suffer “irreparable harm” without such an order from a federal court.
The rarely used request for a preliminary injunction is filed when the NLRB’s traditional pro-worker remedies for employers’ labor law violations fail to resolve the problem, put workers back to work, and stop employers from continuing to violate the law in their anti-union efforts.
This is the case in Pittsburgh, where the Block brothers, owners of the newspaper, refused an order from an administrative law judge of the NLRB (National Bureau of Legal Relations) early last year to stop breaking the law by unilaterally cutting health insurance benefits. The brothers initially tried to push through a premium increase, but refused to negotiate the move with the unions representing newspaper employees. They also froze or cut wages. And they reduced vacation entitlement for members of the News Guild of Pittsburgh.
All of this forced workers to picket in what was the longest strike in Pittsburgh’s history and the longest newspaper strike in decades.
If a U.S. district judge in western Pennsylvania grants the injunction, at least 60 current workers who are members of the union would get their jobs back. And all laid-off workers would be reimbursed for their medical expenses – if the Blocks obey the judge. Last year, however, the Blocks defied the NLRB administrative law judge, highlighting the weakness of U.S. labor law.
There is a risk of a prison sentence
But if the Blocks fail to comply with a district court order, they could face fines or even jail time. In a case involving a different industry, a federal judge in Wisconsin sent recalcitrant co-owners of that company to prison.
The Blocs, who are waging an intra-family battle for control of their newspapers, also have an ugly history with their workers, both Post Gazette and on Toledo blade in Ohio. It took 17 years for the News Guild workers there to receive their last contract.
And when Trump supporters and insurrectionists stormed and looted the US Capitol three and a half years ago, the blocks came to the Post Gazette newsroom and ordered the rewriting of articles to portray the invaders in a friendly light, leading to a name strike by the guild.
The panel’s injunction said the Blocks failed and refused to negotiate in good faith for new contracts with the paper’s six unions, including the Pittsburgh News Guild, a local chapter of the Teamsters and unions for printers, typographers and mailers. The Guild’s old contract expired seven years ago. The Guild added unfair labor practices to the list of union complaints. The Teamsters later settled with the Blocks, accepted severance pay and dissolved their Post Gazette local.
The key issue between the blocks and the workers is a $19-per-week increase in health insurance premiums imposed by management. When the workers voted against it, the blocks retaliated by driving everyone out of the plant – and cutting off their health insurance. The injunction would require the blocks to restore the old health insurance, reverse the increase and negotiate future increases.
The NLRB also requires the blocks to compensate all workers for all health costs they have incurred since the bosses forced them out of the plant. And the blocks must comply with the NLRB’s order in Post Gazette building and have it read to workers while managers are forced to listen. Also, mail or email it to every current and former worker.
The blocks must also send affidavits to NLRB Regional Director Nancy Wilson and the judge who will decide the case within 21 days of a decision, telling them how the Post-Gazette follows the instruction.
Since forcing workers to strike, the Blocs have been surviving on strike support from the CWA, $781,000 in donations from across the United States, and whatever temporary jobs they could find.
Zack Tanner, a striking Post Gazette Interactive Designer and President of the Pittsburgh Newspaper Guild, said the Progress at Pittsburgh Union— the workers’ strike paper — that he is glad the workers are going to court. “It’s really exciting that this is finally happening,” he said. “You can tell by the size and scope how much the PG violates federal law.”
Marian Needham, executive vice president of the News Guild-CWA, said in a statement: “We hope the Blocks will not show the same disdain for the federal courts that they have shown for their employees and this entire negotiation process. We are firmly committed to negotiating a fair settlement for our members, and we will continue to fight until we achieve that goal.”
“With the money that Post Gazette has been responsible for anti-union lawyers, private security companies, the printing of the newspaper at the Butler Eaglewhich we estimate at nearly $12 million, they could have given each employee a raise and funded health insurance instead of laying them off,” said Chris Lang, president of Printing Packaging and Production Workers Local 24M/9N, in a news release.
“This is the beginning of our eighth year of negotiations, and hopefully the 10(j) injunction will put an end to all this nonsense. The employees have dedicated their lives to this company and deserve this respect.”
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