Is The Finish Line in Sight for the Country's Longest Ongoing Strike?

[Omaha Steve]

A conversation with three Pittsburgh Post-Gazette journalists on key updates in their two-and-a-half-year strike to win back their healthcare.
Maximillian Alvarez June 6, 2025

In October of 2022, over 100 workers represented by five labor unions, including production, distribution, advertising and accounts receivable staff, walked off the job on an unfair labor practice strike at the storied publication the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The strike began after the newspaper’s management, Block Communications, which is owned by the Block family, cut off health insurance for employees on October 1 of that year.

After more than 2.5 years on strike, with other unions reaching contracts or taking buyouts and dissolving their units, workers represented by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh are the last remaining strikers holding the line. We speak with a panel of union officers for the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh about how they’ve managed to stay on strike so long and about recent legal updates that have given them hope that an acceptable end to the strike may be on the horizon.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Maximilian Alvarez: I’m honored to be joined on the show today, first by Ed Blazina, a striking transportation writer at the Post-Gazette, and one of the vice presidents of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh. We are also joined by Erin Hebert, also one of the vice presidents of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and a striking copy-editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette. And we are joined as well by Emily Matthews, a photographer on strike and treasurer for the Post-Gazette unit of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh.

I wanted to just start by asking if you could introduce yourself and tell us a little more about who you are, the work that you did at the Post-Gazette, and the work that you’ve been doing for the strike over the past two and a half years.

FULL story: https://inthesetimes.com/article/working-people-pittsburgh-post-gazette-strike