Pittsburgh — The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s request.
The ruling means the PG has to pay back every bargaining unit member for the costs it has illegally passed onto them for the last five-and-a-half years.
Block Communications Inc., which is the PG’s parent company, announced plans to shutter the publication hours after the U.S. Supreme Court last week denied the company’s request for a stay on an injunction also issued by the 3rd Circuit. The move to shutter the Post-Gazette on May 3 coincides with World Press Freedom Day. Because the company’s decision to close the newspaper is in retaliation after losing legal battles in its yearslong union-busting campaign, the company will continue to face liabilities for its violation of federal law.
“The millionaire owners of the Post-Gazette have burned countless dollars trying to destroy our union and destroy a 240-year-old institution in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania,” said NewsGuild-CWA president Jon Schleuss. “The company could have settled for far less than they spent on fighting journalists and breaking federal law.”
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 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) it illegally discarded, including dignified health care. On Nov. 10, 2025, in addition to updating its March injunction regarding health care, the 3rd Circuit Court ordered the company to restore all the requested terms of the previous CBA.
“We had to sacrifice a lot to get this amount of justice. This country and its ruling class have always relentlessly attacked workers. They only ever back off when we fight back,” said Erin Hebert, Post-Gazette copy editor and first vice president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh.
