Labor Officials To Seek Injunction Against Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Labor officials have received a green light to pursue an injunction in federal court against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper for allegedly violating its employees’ rights.

A spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board confirmed to HuffPost that the agency approved a request by a regional director in Pennsylvania to seek the temporary injunction. The petition is likely to be filed in federal court in the coming days.

Journalists and production employees have been on a grueling 18-month strike amid a battle with the newspaper’s owners, Block Communications.

An administrative law judge at the NLRB ruled last year that the Post-Gazette 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. The union says the company left workers with significantly higher health care costs, less vacation time and weaker job protections.

Depending on the scope of the injunction request, the labor board could ask that a judge order the newspaper back to the bargaining table with the union, or force the paper to rescind changes it made to employees’ work terms without the union’s approval.

“It’s been a long wait, but this is a big relief for us,” said Natalie Duleba, a designer at the paper who’s on strike and serves as the local union’s secretary. “The ultimate goal is us getting back in the office. That’s always been the goal ― to get back to work, just under fair working conditions.”

The board tends to seek injunctions against employers only under special circumstances, when officials believe they need to stop ongoing “unfair labor practices” while a case is being litigated.

A spokesperson for the newspaper