Pittsburgh Post-Gazette page designer and copy editor Natalie Duleba still remembers the cold October day when she first went on strike. She parked a quarter mile away because it was cheap. As she walked to the picket line, she was “vibrating with anxiety.”

She wondered if her colleagues be surprised to see her there. Would they even know who she was? Duleba had joined the Post-Gazette right before the pandemic started, and her night shifts meant she hadn’t been very involved with the union.

Little did Duleba know, she would spend the next year helping her coworkers file for unemployment and find health care resources. She would fundraise with them and sit next to them during bargaining sessions. One year later, and those colleagues have become friends.

“I would do whatever I needed to do to help them,” Duleba said. “These are kind of like ride-or-die people now.”

Striking journalists at the Post-Gazette marked the one-year anniversary of their work stoppage Wednesday. It is a surreal milestone, workers said, that many did not think would come to pass. Despite their commitment to the strike, progress remains elusive as negotiations stall at the bargaining table. A court order is likely the only thing that can end the strike, some said.

Unionized journalists walked off the job on Oct. 18, 2022, roughly two weeks after four other Post-Gazette unions started their own strike in protest of the company’s decision to terminate their members’ health insurance. The union representing the journalists, the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, made three demands: reinstate health care coverage to their colleagues, restore the guild’s old contract from 2017, and start bargaining in good faith for a new contract.

One year later, those demands remain intact. The Post-Gazette, which is owned by Block Communications, has periodically met with the five striking unions, which include Communications Workers of America, Teamsters and Pressmen’s units, but there has been little movement. The last bargaining session took place in September, and no other sessions are scheduled.

Sen. John Fetterman holds up a wanted sign for Post-Gazette publisher John Robinson Block while speaking during a rally to mark one year of Post-Gazette production workers being on strike on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023, outside the Post-Gazette building on the North Shore. (Pittsburgh Union Progress/Emily Matthews)

Meanwhile, the number of people on strike has dwindled as workers leave for other jobs. The beginning of the strike saw roughly 140 employees across all five unions participating. That number now hovers around 90, approximately 35 of whom are part of the journalists’ union.

Complicating matters is that many employees continue to work, and the Post-Gazette has hired replacement workers to help sustain the paper’s operations. The newsroom has nearly 100 journalists working, according to the company.

“We are optimistic that a resolution to the current work stoppage will be found soon and appreciate the Herculean efforts of our employees who continue to work,” Post-Gazette spokesperson Allison Latcheran wrote in an emailed statement.

Workers are frustrated. They say the company has made little effort to resolve the strike. Still, many remain committed to seeing the strike through.

“It takes a lot to upend your life and change your livelihood,” said interactive news designer Zack Tanner. “But clearly if this many people are still fighting a year later, it’s a fight worth fighting.”

Uncharted territory

The last open-ended newsroom strike in the U.S. was in 2000. When the journalists at the Post-Gazette walked off the job, they entered uncharted territory. The first thing they had to do was learn how to be on strike.

That first month was “hell,” photojournalist Steve Mellon said. The workers had to figure out how to set up and administer a strike fund. They had to make sure everyone’s health care needs were met and navigate the arduous process of filing for unemployment. Though workers applied for unemployment in late October 2022, they didn’t get it approved until June 2023.

Members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and supporters of their strike against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette rally in front of the house of publisher John Block, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, in Shadyside.(Pittsburgh Union Progress/Alexandra Wimley)

Strike pay is $400 a week before tax. Though some have been able to survive with the help of family, others have had to take on side gigs to support themselves. Duleba said that in addition to her strike pay, she is being sponsored by the NewsGuild of New York, which sends her an extra $200 a week. She also dog and house sits.

“That used to be savings money or fun money,” Duleba said. “Now it’s pay-my-mortgage money.”

The union also maintains a strike relief fund, which helps cover the bills and expenses of workers who need additional help. The guild has raised nearly $600,000 for the fund, said Tanner, who also serves as the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s president.

For the past year, features editor Bob Batz Jr. has been unable to invest in his company 401(k) plan. He has also had to cut back on spending. Batz runs the union’s strike newspaper, the Pittsburgh Union Progress, on a seven-year-old MacBook Air that he cannot afford to replace.

The lack of pay — and lack of ability to pay — has made Batz’s job as interim editor of the strike paper more difficult.

“I’m an editor that can’t tell anyone what to do,” Batz said. “I can only ask them if they’ll do stuff.”

Nevertheless, a small but dedicated group of striking journalists regularly contributes to the Union Progress. The paper gives them a chance to draw on their expertise and sourcing to continue keeping readers informed. It also serves as a visible demonstration to the public of the importance of the journalists’ work.

One of those journalists is education reporter Andrew Goldstein. His coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in 2018 helped the Post-Gazette staff win a Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting. As a Jewish resident of the neighborhood where the shooting took place who has family and friends who attended the synagogue, Goldstein has felt a personal responsibility to cover the shooting’s aftermath.

A makeshift memorial stands outside the Tree of Life Synagogue in the aftermath of a deadly shooting in Pittsburgh, Oct. 29, 2018. Hardy Carroll Lloyd, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, to making online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at the Pittsburgh synagogue. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Goldstein planned to cover the shooter’s trial for the Post-Gazette, the paper he’s worked at since graduating college nearly a decade ago, but the strike meant he had to do it for the Union Progress instead.

“It just felt wrong,” Goldstein said. “It was just weird to look at the Post-Gazette and see other people covering the trial and doing stories in the Post-Gazette that we would have been doing ourselves. It makes me sad.”

To cover the trial this past summer, the Union Progress partnered with The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, which Goldstein said enhanced their coverage. The Union Progress’ reporters were able to lend their experience covering hard news while the Chronicle’s journalists contributed deep sourcing within the Jewish community.

Mellon, who is an associate editor of the Union Progress, said that the strike paper has covered stories and communities other outlets have ignored, such as labor. Unionized Starbucks workers in Pittsburgh have refused to talk to the Post-Gazette since it is a struck paper, so the Union Progress has covered the Starbucks workers’ actions instead. Mellon said he has also spent a lot of time covering the local LGBTQ+ community.

Writing for the Union Progress has allowed Mellon to “redefine” himself as a journalist. He’s found that he is able to have more honest conversations with members of undercovered communities.

“We have credibility in our community because we’ve taken a stand, and we’re paying a price for that,” Mellon said. “And I think there are communities in the city that appreciate that.”

Mellon has also been covering the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, who were initially at the center of media attention when a train derailed and contaminated the local environment with toxic chemicals in February. He visits the region regularly and sympathizes with residents’ feelings of being ignored while facing unjust circumstances. The first time Mellon visited the city, he saw reporters from many other outlets. These days, he’s the only one.

This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the night before in East Palestine, Ohio, still on fire at mid-day, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

“A strike paper is the only publication out there, and people appreciate it,” Mellon said. “They know that we’re not getting paid. They understand that those of us working on (the Union Progress) — we’re doing it because we believe these stories are important to tell.”

‘Pittsburgh’s loss’

Going on strike means putting one’s life — and career — on pause. Eventually, some decide to move on.

The journalists’ work stoppage was divisive from the beginning. The union’s strike vote passed 38-36, and some members at the time said they felt as if they had been rushed into the vote. Approximately 60 of the union’s 100 members ended up going on strike. Today, roughly 35 remain. Most of that attrition is due to striking workers finding jobs elsewhere, Tanner said.

“I think one of the hardest losses for me is watching some of these really good young journalists finally take other jobs because it’s Pittsburgh’s loss,” Batz said. “There’s just nowhere for them to work until this is settled.”

For those who remain, strike duties continue to fill up their days. Several journalists said that being on strike has been more work than actually going to work. Each day is uncertain, and the lack of structure and predictability that comes with a normal 40-hour work week can be stressful.

In addition to his work for the Union Progress, Mellon co-chairs the strike’s health and wellness committee. Some of his current priorities include determining how much members will owe in taxes for their strike pay and getting workers signed up for a second year of unemployment.

Mellon wants to develop a process to reach out to individual members to check how their mental health is faring through the strike. He also wants to make sure they have the financial latitude to indulge in activities like going out with friends that will keep them mentally healthy.

“If that’s going to keep you a part of the community and keep you thinking straight, keep you on an even keel, let’s figure out a way to pay a bill that will free up that extra 35 or 50 bucks or whatever it would be to go out,” Mellon said. “We’re very proud of the solidarity we’ve had, but we can’t expect people after a year to deny themselves everything.”

With both sides resolute in their positions, some are pinning their hopes for the strike’s end on a pending ruling from the National Labor Relations Board.

The journalists’ previous contract expired in 2017. Negotiations for a new contract stalled in 2020 when the Post-Gazette declared an impasse. The company then unilaterally made changes to the journalists’ salaries and benefits including health insurance.

In January, an administrative law judge ruled that those changes were illegal and found that the Post-Gazette had failed to bargain in good faith. The judge ordered the company to reinstate the 2017 contract, return to the bargaining table, and make employees whole for any lost earnings or benefits.

Natalie Duleba, a striking Post-Gazette worker, speaks during a rally outside the City-County Building in downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday, Jan. 28. Two days earlier, a National Labor Relations Board judge had ruled in the union’s favor. (Pittsburgh Union Progress/Emily Matthews)

The Post-Gazette appealed the decision to the full NLRB in March, and both sides await a decision from the five-person board. The company has previously said it is willing to appeal up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit if necessary.

Tanner said that the ruling could come any day. Once the board rules, the union hopes to get a federal court to enforce parts of the order so that they can have their contract back, including their old health care plans, and get back to work while the appeals process plays out. Meanwhile, the union is still prepared to bargain with the Post-Gazette to end the strike sooner.

Mellon said the wait has been frustrating. He went on strike to empower himself and his fellow workers, but now he feels that power slipping away. The union has done what it can to take care of its members and put together proposals and counter proposals, but their fate seems to rest in the hands of the courts, Mellon said.

Still, he believes that the union will ultimately win. A judge has already ruled that the Post-Gazette violated labor law, Mellon said. The question that remains is, when will that violation be corrected?

“It’s almost like we’re underwater,” Mellon said. “We don’t know how deep we are. We’re swimming to the surface. We don’t know if the surface is three feet above us or 100 feet above us. We know it’s up there.

“We know the oxygen is up there.”