Post-Gazette, striking workers spar in court

A five-hour hearing over a request by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for a permanent injunction in a dispute with its unions ended in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Thursday after a dozen security video clips were introduced into evidence.

The video clips included scenes showing picket line threats, property damage and altercations that delayed delivery of the newspaper’s print editions.

Since the strike against the newspaper began in October, at least three people have been injured in scuffles between striking union members and independent contractors who use their personal cars for newspaper home delivery, based on testimony from union and company officials. There have been no arrests.

The Post-Gazette is seeking an injunction to stop strikers from trespassing on private property and interfering with normal business operations. The unions say labor law allows picketing on private property, including Gateway View Plaza on the South Side, which is a company workplace.

A ruling isn’t expected before the end of summer.

Members of five Post-Gazette unions walked off the job in October after the company switched to a higher cost health insurance plan for employees.

In deciding whether to issue an injunction, Judge Mary C. McGinley will be balancing a long-standing federal prohibition against courts issuing injunctions in matters arising from labor disputes vs. the rights of private employers to conduct normal business without interference.

“The court has to tread lightly in this arena,” she said.

Among the witnesses at Thursday’s hearing was Pittsburgh Newspaper Guild President Zack Tanner, who can be seen in security videos with another Post-Gazette journalist pulling bandanna masks over their faces while approaching independent delivery drivers at night at Gateway View Plaza.

In one clip, a union member can be seen slapping a newspaper cart away from two delivery drivers, a married couple that the Post-Gazette said were in their 70s, while shouting threats. “I’ll [expletive] knock you out, you mother[expletive],” the striker shouts in the video.

During questioning of Mr. Tanner, Post-Gazette attorney Brian Hentosz asked about the events that night.

“Are you comfortable with that behavior,” he asked Mr. Tanner.

“Whether I feel comfortable or not, I’m not sure,” he answered.

“Is this a way to keep them from their job duties?” Mr. Hentosz asked about the confrontations with independent contractors.

“I can’t be sure,” Mr. Tanner said.

In a March 13 court filing, the Post-Gazette alleges that Mr. Tanner, a defendant in the petition for the injunction, “threatened and attacked” a 75-year-old independent contractor at Gateway View Plaza. The unions denied committing any violence in a court document that was filed the same day.

“To the contrary, defendants — not the PG — are the individuals who need protection,” a memorandum of law filed to support picketing said. “The PG is the only party to this labor dispute that has engaged in any form of violence.”

At Thursday’s hearing, Mr. Tanner testified that he never saw any picket line violence or property damage at the South Side terminal.

Post-Gazette Director of Operations Robert Weber testified damage inflicted by strikers there had included a broken building window, slashed tires and nails scattered near the entrance on West Carson Street.

In addition, union members used bright handheld strobe lights to make filming of the misconduct difficult, Mr. Weber said.

“They use it to blind people who are driving,” he testified, adding that non-employees had joined strikers on the picket line. “They don’t care what’s going on. Their main goal is to cause chaos.”

In a television interview recorded at Gateway View Plaza in April, Ed Blazina, Newspaper Guild first vice president, said the “whole purpose of what’s going on down there is to stop delivery” of the newspapers, evidence the Post-Gazette cited in court in support of its argument that picketers’ actions extended beyond publicizing a labor dispute.

Also testifying was John Santa, Newspaper Guild unit secretary, who broke up a physical altercation between a nonunion truck driver and a union member in March at the South Side terminal. The purpose of the pickets, he said, was to “make things difficult for the scabs.”

Mr. Santa can be heard in a video clip yelling, “Stop this! Stop this,” in breaking up a fistfight between one striker and the delivery truck driver that he said caused bleeding from the mouth of the striker. In addition, Post-Gazette Teamster member Stephen Gentille suffered a broken jaw, Mr. Santa said, testifying that the first attack by the driver was unprovoked.

“The driver then threw a punch to the face and (the striker) fell to the ground,” Mr. Santa said. The driver continued to taunt Mr. Gentille as he was being treated by city paramedics, Mr. Santa said.

Other video clips showed several instances of the driver being surrounded, taunted and harassed by a dozen or so strikers as he got out of his truck to make a delivery.

Pittsburgh police Officer Joseph Morrison, who has worked private security details for the Post-Gazette at Gateway View Plaza, testified that taunting, harassment and stepping in front of moving vehicles was common among strikers, especially Mr. Gentille, who can be seen in one security video chasing a delivery truck as it entered the terminal, shouting, slapping the hood and trying to open the driver’s door.

“He has no right to block that vehicle from coming into that facility,” Officer Morrison said.

The strike has not been supported by all Post-Gazette newsroom employees, with more than 60 reporters, photographers, copy editors and designers continuing to put out the newspaper along with about 20 newsroom managers. Just under 40 newsroom employees are participating in the walkout.

The unions are continuing to fight for restoration of their health care benefits, new labor agreements and other concessions. About 10 unfair labor practice complaints are pending against the Post-Gazette with the National Labor Relations Board, Joseph J. Pass, newspaper legal representative for decades and a defendant in the case, testified at the hearing.

In January, in a separate case, an NLRB administrative law judge ruled that the Post-Gazette had violated labor law by engaging in “overall bad faith bargaining” since 2019 for contracts that expired in 2017. The company has appealed that decision to the full NLRB board.

Kris B. Mamula: kmamula@post-gazette.com