What newsroom organizers learned from the years-long strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"After 1,133 days on the picket line, the 26 journalists still on strike from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette returned to work on Monday. Whether they'll be back at their desks - well, that's another story. The Post-Gazette filed a last-ditch stay ahead of an appeal the company has said it plans to file. (The Post-Gazette, owned by Block Communications, declined to comment. The returning journalists met with editor-in-chief Stan Wischnowski on Monday morning, a union official confirmed.)"

"The union voted to end the strike last week after a federal appeals court ruled in its favor. The president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, who had vowed to grow his beard and hair for the duration of the strike (a promise made before anyone expected it to last more than three years!) made the big chop. And the journalists on strike showed up on Monday ready to get back to work."

""There was a complicated situation [in Pittsburgh] where other bargaining units at the newspaper going out on strike essentially forced the issue with the newsroom union," noted Matt Pearce, former president of Media Guild of the West. "But one of the basic principles of strike organizing is that you need to button up a super majority as strong as you can. Because, essentially, the more people you have crossing the picket line, the longer a labor dispute is going to go on.""

Twenty-six Pittsburgh Post-Gazette journalists returned to work after a 1,133-day strike, even as the paper filed a last-ditch stay ahead of an expected appeal. The union voted to end the strike following a federal appeals court ruling in the union's favor, and striking reporters met with editor-in-chief Stan Wischnowski upon their return. The initial 2022 strike vote was narrow and rushed, with slightly more than half voting to strike while many prominent reporters remained in the newsroom. Organizers emphasized that a strong supermajority is crucial because higher participation reduces crossovers and shortens labor disputes.

Read at Nieman Lab