On the picket line

Pittsburgh Gazette journalists win 

The striking workers at the Pittsburgh Gazette have agreed to end their three-year-long strike, after the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the company to reinstate the 2014-2017 labor contract terms.

The newspaper bosses illegally disregarded the contract in July 2020 and unilaterally abandoned committments to collectively bargain workplace rights, including health care, dumping costs onto workers that essentially cut workers’ pay by thousands of dollars. The National Labor Relations Board sided with the union. 

The workers —members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA) Local 38061 — walked out on Oct. 18, 2022, after negotiations broke down, demanding their rights and benefits under the 2014- 2017 contract be restored. They remained committed to winning back what the company tried to take away. 

The court decision also mandated the Gazette compensate workers for health care costs imposed in 2020. Twenty-six journalists, on the picket line for three years, will return to their jobs after successfully battling Unfair Labor Practices. 

“I’m looking forward to having a front-page story again,” Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, told CBS News. (Nov. 24)

Health care, university workers in California

Nurses and health care workers at Sharp HealthCare locations in San Diego took to the picket line on Nov. 26. They demanded to be treated as the same essential, professional workers they proved themselves to be during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 5,800 members of United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals held the three-day strike to call attention to grievances around safe staffing, unfair sick time policy and wages.

University of California (UC) nurses called off a two-day strike after their union, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United was successful in winning a four-year contract that delivers an 18.5% wage increase and other long-term protections. Prior to the nurses’ win, the technical and research workers at UC won their demands after months of negotiations between the college administration and the Union of Professional and Technical Employees-CWA Local 9119. 

Still to be resolved is the labor contract for the University of California food service workers, patient care assistants, custodians and others at 10 campuses and five medical centers represented by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. These workers staged a two-day strike late in October.

IT workers strike non-profit

Information technology workers at Community Action for a Multicultural Brooklyn Alliance (CAMBA) have been on strike since Nov. 5. The members of the CAMBA IT Workers Union are fighting for better wages and against management’s Unfair Labor Practices. 

CAMBA is a legal aid organization, one of the largest non-profit organizations in New York City. The company has refused to negotiate and demanded the union withdraw its ULP charges with the NLRB. The IT workers are not backing down from their legitimate demands. 

CAMBA’s IT staff help make it possible for thousands of low-income New Yorkers to access housing, education and legal support, yet the workers struggle to survive on wages below the standard of living for New York City. The non-profit’s CEO Valerie Barton-Richardson reportedly took home a staggering $51,700 every two weeks — more than an IT department administrative assistant earned in an entire year.