After a years-long court battle, union members at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will be reimbursed for increased health care costs their employer refused to pay for nearly four years.
“Saying this is an incredible win for our members is an understatement,” said Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh President Lacretia Wimbley on Monday. “Post-Gazette parent company, Block Communications (BCI), has gotten away with disenfranchising us from our contractual rights for far too long — this decision by the Third Circuit is empowering and liberating.”
The Post-Gazette and the union have been in a broader, ongoing labor dispute for nearly five years. During that time, the Post-Gazette stopped covering employees’ health care coverage increases as required by the old union contract. Federal labor law requires that companies maintain current pay and benefits during negotiations.
Now, the company will pay out more than $100,000. The union represents about 100 employees at the newspaper.
The reimbursement follows a ruling last fall from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which upheld a 2020 ruling from U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan. Her ruling required that the newspaper company reimburse union employees for an increase in health care costs.
“It’s sad and ridiculous that the company would rather spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting us. Now they have been forced to pay what they should have paid to begin with, and it has cost them much more than it would have to simply do the right thing.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did not return requests for comment.
