FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Moira Bulloch, CWA Communications MBulloch@cwa-union.org, 202-434-1168
The company’s actions have now endangered local managers, attorneys, and executives who choose to enforce the company’s illegal practices.
PITTSBURGH – On January 20th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed contempt charges against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for defying court orders to restore editorial workers’ contractual, collectively bargained health care plan. The company illegally scrapped that plan in July of 2020.
Editorial workers at the Post-Gazette — members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh (TNG-CWA Local 38061) — went out on strike on Oct. 18, 2022, demanding the company restore the terms of the entire union contract it illegally discarded, including dignified health care. Following other legal defeats, in March of 2025 the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals enjoined the PG to restore the bargained health care.
Company lawyers falsely claimed, both in court and to employees, that the health care plan no longer existed. It did, and does. On Nov. 10, 2025, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court ordered the company to restore all the requested terms of the contract while also updating its March injunction on health care
The company requested an emergency stay of that injunction from the U.S. Supreme Court in late December. After receiving written arguments against a stay from the NLRB, the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, and the U.S. Solicitor General, that request was denied. Within hours of that denial, PG employees were called to an emergency meeting and shown a prerecorded video of a Block Communications Inc. exec telling them the paper was closing on May 3, which is World Press Freedom Day. The PG has continued to not offer the health care plan.
“Over the past several years, we repeatedly warned top Post-Gazette officials that their actions were illegal and were having a detrimental impact on the newspaper. Actions have consequences.” said Andrew Goldstein, Post-Gazette education reporter and president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh. “Pittsburgh deserves much better than a company that will violate the rights of their employees, spend millions of dollars doing so, cry poor, then skip town.”
If the 3rd Circuit finds the PG in contempt, then it has 14 days from that ruling to comply. If it does not, it will be fined $100,000, and an additional $5,000 for each additional day it flouts the order. On the same timeline, Post-Gazette general manager Tracey DeAngelo or any officer, agent, attorney or company representative who knowingly violates the order would be fined $10,000 after 14 days, and an additional $1,000 for every additional day.
Due to the retaliatory nature of the company’s decision to close the newspaper, the PG is also risking further liabilities for its violation of federal law.
Following the corporate announcement to close the paper, workers and community members began meeting to advance a vision and plans for an alternative to the Block-owned Post-Gazette that engages more effectively and sustainably as a source of communication and connection to reflect the concerns of working-class people in the region.
Other members of the public can support that effort by signing the pledge to support post-Block Pittsburgh journalism.
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About The NewsGuild-CWA
The NewsGuild-CWA is the largest labor union of media workers and was founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. The Guild represents more than 27,000 members in newsrooms, online publications, and non-profit organizations across North America.