The Globe stands in solidarity and in full support with striking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers.

The employees striking work in advertising, distribution, and production. Many of these employees have not had a pay raise in 16 years, despite inflation and cost of living increases.

The strike began after Post-Gazette owner Block Communications stripped employees of their health insurance coverage last week. This is unacceptable. Healthcare is a human right, and their employees deserve it. There is no room within negotiations where this is not addressed.

Block Communications has offered a nine percent pay raise for enrollment in their health insurance plan, but many employees feel as though the cost of buying into this plan amounts to a pay cut.

In fact, Block Communications is currently in a back and forth with the National Labor Relations board and the Post Gazette for their treatment of employees. There is a clear pattern here, and the pattern is a bad look for Block Communications.

The demands requested by workers would amount to an estimated 16 dollars a week per employee. It is unclear why Block Communications, a billion dollar company, is unable to find 16 dollars a week, and we understand why the Post-Gazette employees, many of whom have worked their for years, are disappointed and insulted by this offer.

As students who are preparing to enter the field, we believe it is important to make clear that we support these workers. Their jobs could very well soon become our jobs, and it is unfathomable to us that they are being treated this way.

As long as the strike continues, we encourage our readers to not cross the picket line. Do not read any content from the Post-Gazette until this dispute is resolved. Hopefully it can be resolved soon, and the paper can resume publication. Until then we won’t be reading it.

We encourage our readers to seek out coverage of this strike and learn more about the ongoing dispute. Just don’t read it from the Post-Gazette.

Note: The Globe does not typically endorse issues of this type, but we feel very strongly in support of these workers. We as an editorial board discussed this issue and all agreed that it was appropriate for us to voice our support. This decision has no effect on our long standing position of not endorsing political candidates, and we do not endorse any political candidate associated with the strike.