(PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA) - Exactly 18 months and one and a half hours into an Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) strike against The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has authorized the Regional NLRB Office to seek a 10(j) injunction in the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s and Sister Unions’ case against The Post-Gazette for dozens of ongoing ULP violations of Federal Law.

Back in 2020, the news outlet declared an illegal end to bargaining and unilaterally imposed new working conditions, leaving Workers with much higher health care costs, less vacation time and weaker job protections.

An NLRB Administrative Law Judge ruled in 2023 The Post-Gazette, which is owned by private Media Company Block Communications, failed to bargain in good faith and that it illegally imposed work conditions on the Newsroom’s Union, an affiliate of The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA).

Viewed by some as the key enforcement mechanism of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 10(j) injunctions are a powerful accountability tool because they can swiftly impose a court-enforced order against an employer on a temporary basis, something that can often take the NLRB years to get.

Depending on the scope of the injunction request, the NLRB could ask that a Judge order the newspaper back to the bargaining table with the Union or force the paper to reverse changes it made to working terms and conditions without the Union’s approval.

Such an injunction is rare, with this one being only the second one the NLRB authorized in 2024 so far.

“As Striking Workers, we’ve stood strong against Post-Gazette management and the Block family for the last eighteen months as they’ve violated Labor Law and tried to ignore and break our Unions,” said Zack Tanner, the President of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh. “Today’s signal that the NLRB will finally be seeking injunctive relief through the courts is validation that our fight is just and will be won in short order.”

For More On This Labor News Story, Go To: 'Huge news': National Labor Relations Board is 'seeking injunction' that could end Pittsburgh news workers strike - Pittsburgh Union Progress