Supreme Court declines to hear Post-Gazette’s appeal of healthcare costs and salary loss payments, securing final victory for Newspaper Guild

The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh has secured its latest – and final – legal victory against Block Communications Inc.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear BCI’s request for an appeal of a ruling requiring the company to reimburse union members for pay cuts and increases in healthcare costs incurred under illegally imposed working conditions.

The Guild says BCI owes millions of dollars to current and former PG employees. The company has now exhausted its appeals.

“I’ve actually lost count of the number of agencies, judges, courts and other authorities that have told the Blocks that the workers were right and the multimillionaires were wrong. Our members were the first to tell them — more than nine years ago now,” said Jon Schleuss, president of The NewsGuild-CWA, in a statement. “It’s staggering to think how much money and time the company wasted on losing when that could have been spent on dignified working conditions and improving the caliber of local journalism.

“The Block family’s efforts to delay accountability are finished. We look forward to seeing justice served so that our award-winning journalists can continue to focus on holding power to account.”

BCI had asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a ruling from the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals enforcing an order that the company reimburse union members for costs they unlawfully incurred.

No one from BCI could be reached immediately for comment. Union members who declined to join the strike and kept working also will be made whole.

The saga began nearly a decade ago, on March 31, 2017, when the last contract between the union and company expired. After nearly 3½ years of negotiations, the company declared an impasse and imposed working conditions on the union. Until then, the union had been working under the terms of the expired contract.

Guild members went on strike in October 2022, demanding restoration of the contract. It would become the longest-running strike in the United States and the longest in Pittsburgh history. The guild voted to end the strike after winning its case in the 3rd Circuit, returning to work Nov. 24, 2025. 

Just weeks later, on Jan. 7, the Post-Gazette announced it would close after yet another legal defeat, this time when the 3rd Circuit declined to issue a stay on its ruling requiring BCI to restore the healthcare plan bargained under the previous contract. Later, BCI reversed course and announced it would sell the newspaper to the nonprofit Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism of Baltimore.

But the strikers’ elation at the paper’s survival was short-lived. Venetoulis assumed ownership on May 4, declining to retain almost all of the strikers while keeping many of the scabs hired during the work stoppage.

Since then, many strikers have been involved with the July soft launch of the worker-led Pittsburgh Progress under a co-op model. During the strike, workers published the Pittsburgh Union Progress online. 

Monday’s win courtesy of the Supreme Court represents the union’s final step in holding BCI accountable for what the court system and National Labor Relations Board have deemed its unlawful treatment of the union.

“A lot of honest, determined people sacrificed more than most know to get this ruling enforced and finalized,” said Andrew Goldstein, president of the Guild, in a statement. “The Blocks and their co-conspirators in company management and elsewhere knowingly and willfully broke federal law for years, bringing untold harm to not only their workers, but also the news industry more broadly. We’re looking forward to getting quite literal payback and hoping this serves as a warning to similarly reckless owners. Shame on the Blocks.”

Guild members working on the Pittsburgh Progress wrote this story. It will be updated with a response from BCI if it becomes available.