The @pghguild.com strike paper leads with the Labor Day Parade, throws in tunnel and roadwork, and scouts the Peters football team. Steve Rotstein writes "you would be hard pressed to find a more consistent title contender — or a better turnaround story — in all of Western Pa." www.unionprogress.com
The Post-Gazette's ongoing breaking of federal labor law and court orders is despicable. Except for the employees and others that are enabling that, happy Labor Day!
One Labor Day longer.
The @pghguild.com strike paper, the Pittsburgh Union Progress, wishes fellow union members and workers and especially its relentless supporters a very happy Labor Day. Here's something Brad Everett, Emily Matthews, John Santa and Steve Rotstein made for you: www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/31/b...
The @pghguild.com Sunday strike paper shares a story from @pointparku.bsky.social's Next Generation Newsroom in which Erin Yudt and @thathakas.bsky.social look ahead to the next U.S. attorney here: www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/31/w...
Emily Matthews, Brad Everett and Steve Rotstein are really good at covering Western Pennsylvania high school football. Open the @pghguild.com strike paper and learn all about what happened Friday night: www.unionprogress.com
Still … striker pizza.
As the @pghguild.com strike sports team preps for football Friday night, here's a story on backpay for @lettercarriers.bsky.social members, and one from @pointparku.bsky.social's Next Generation Newsroom reporter Erin Yudt about the region's urban search and rescue task force: www.unionprogress.com
The PUP also is pleased to share the latest from @pointparku.bsky.social's Next Generation Newsroom. @thathakas.bsky.social and Erin Yudt report on $10 million (!) in skimmed/scammed SNAP benefits since last fall and what's Pennsylvania going to do about it? www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/28/s...
Also a helluva a sports report, with Brad Everett taking us inside the college football transfer portal that helped put WPIAL/City League players at 24 Power Four schools, and Steve Rotstein on the Hempfield Area QB honoring his late dad and playing with a poise beyond his years: unionprogress.com
Helluva @pghguild.com strike paper today, leading with @stevemellon412.bsky.social digging into the Hawk's Nest Tunnel, America's worst workplace disaster you may not have heard about; a Labor Day Parade preview; and we have a new advertiser. Thanks, @412foodrescue.bsky.social! unionprogress.com
The Post-Gazette has been breaking federal labor law for longer than I've been on strike (1044 days).
The @pghguild.com "paper" leads with the Magee-Womens nurses celebrating unionizing with @seiuhcpa.org. Plus a story on telematics for identifying traffic trends and tendencies, our football game of the week and @johnnysantapup.bsky.social's local @ncaafb.bsky.social preview: www.unionprogress.com
Transit cuts start in Philadelphia; the Will Allen Foundation launches The Clairton Huddle for students' mental health; a Fox Chapel football kicker is to play for the @universityofga.bsky.social Bulldogs. News, features and sports in the @pghguild.com still-on-strike paper at www.unionprogress.com
It's Monday Aug. 25 and the @pghguild.com is still on strike and still making a strike "paper," with stories on Young Scholars' 10th anniversary, roadwork 'round the region, the PUP sports recruiting notebook and this week's Best in Show: PUP high school football rankings: www.unionprogress.com
Still on strike on weekends, too, the @pghguild.com nonetheless made you a Sunday paper featuring a five-TD game by the nation's No. 1 junior running back (McKeesport), the @ghsahq.bsky.social annual meeting in Pittsburgh, and a new book on our region's rich Hungarian heritage: www.unionprogress.com
The @pghguild.com strike paper's @stevemellon412.bsky.social covers an important story -- people dying on the job. Says a @steelworkers.bsky.social official, "On average, today alone, 14 workers in this country will not return after their shift." www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/23/t...
To quote the Imani Christian Saints coach, "Those guys, they have an attitude when they play." The @pghguild.com still-on-strike paper sports staff -- Emily, Brad, Steve and @johnnysantapup.bsky.social -- cover Western Pennsylvania high school football's first Friday night: www.unionprogress.com
The loss of the lodge on the North Rim is sad …
The @pghguild.com still-on-strike paper pregames tonight's start of the Western Pennsylvania high school football season, which includes the debut of a stadium named for homegrown pro Tyler Boyd, by talking with some of its current stars. The roadwork, meanwhile, never ends. www.unionprogress.com
On Football Season Eve, the @pghguild.com still-on-strike paper sports team delivers the WPIAL Class 6A scouting report, the PUP preseason rankings, and Brad Everett's "10 things I’m looking forward to watching this high school football season." www.unionprogress.com
As the @pghguild.com still-on-strike paper sports team continues to pregame for Week 0 of the Western Pennsylvania high school football season, they preview the first PUP Game of the week and scout WPIAL Class 5A. And finally a new bridge opens in South Fayette: www.unionprogress.com
"We have more power than we know." www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8cL...
"Raring to go": Today, the class act that is the @pghguild.com still-on-strike paper's sports team continues to drive towards the first Friday night of the new high school football season by scouting WPIAL Class 4A: www.unionprogress.com
Emily Escalante is a resident of Pittsburgh's Mexican War Streets neighborhood and a member of the Block Communications, Inc. board of directors. Emily sits in her gentrified home and hides her true identity as a union-buster. Today, we hung flyers in her neighborhood to reveal who she really is.
At the two-year, 10-month mark of the @pghguild.com strike, the PUP is packed with more preseason high school football (3A and 2A), more roadwork, and another AI story shared by @pointparku.bsky.social's teaching newsroom's @thathakas.bsky.social. Read, share and support at www.unionprogress.com
Today's PUP also has news and features on the Clairton community coming together to support victims of the coke works explosions, electric vehicle charging stations, construction at the 1-79 and Route 910 interchange at Wexford, donated supplies for back-to-school and more: www.unionprogress.com
The @pghguild.com still-on-strike Sunday paper is a thick one, topped with the start of our sports staff's high school football preseason coverage week leading up to the first Friday night. We kick off with City League and WPIAL Class 1A: www.unionprogress.com
My in-laws are in that range, too. Amazing.
Thank you for reading! I love sharing people's stories ...
Not a lot of people are married for 50 years. My neighbors know what it takes. www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/16/a...
The @pghguild.com still-on-strike paper has great stories about the people behind donated life-saving outdoor automated external defibrillator equipment in two Pittsburgh and five regional parks, more (there's always more) roadwork, and Jayden Revis (yes, Darrelle's his dad): www.unionprogress.com
Today, we sent a letter to @themarshallproject.org leadership expressing concern about their denial of bargaining obligations. Management has repeatedly denied members Weingarten rights, engaged in an illegal layoff, and more — we need your help to demand that management bargain in good faith.
Here's a way to support our @steelworkers.bsky.social fam in and around Clairton: gofund.me/32d6b619
The @pghguild.com strike paper's sports team -- @johnnysantapup.bsky.social, @jenku.bsky.social, Steve, Brad, Rob, Tyler, Emily -- is BRINGING the high school football preseason coverage, as Coach Rick Davis explains, while Helen Fallon features Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh: www.unionprogress.com
More about last night, including, embedded in the PUP story, an Emily Matthews and @awimley.bsky.social slideshow!
In the Wednesday @pghguild.com strike paper, a show of @cwaunion.bsky.social solidarity in Shadyside, some shifts in area road projects, and some big names in high school sports make their college commitments for basketball, baseball, football ... and the beach: www.unionprogress.com
From @kiley.bsky.social at @insideclimatenews.org: "We’re all exposed to [fossil fuel pollution] every single day. We’re bathed in it." insideclimatenews.org/news/0508202...
In the wee hours of this morning, Ed Blazina emailed us at the @pghguild.com strike paper, "I filed a fairly long list of roadwork for this week." Here it is: www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/11/a...
In which the @pghguild.com ❤️ the @nytguildtech.bsky.social: www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/10/r...
Crack open a cold Iron, thanks to Pittsburgh Independent. Do we have to change what we call the giant South Side clock? www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/08/s...
Hot off the presses and just hot — @jenku.bsky.social’s ratty new shirt design for our @pghguild.com. $20. I’m bootlegging some starting today Downtown for the @newsguild.org sector conference.
Leading today's @pghguild.com strike paper, Ed Blazina reports that the Parkway East will be closed (!) in both directions (!!). But not for 25 days -- yet. If you can get to Oakland Sunday, Helen Fallon writes, you can have a lot of free fun, from park programs to puppets. www.unionprogress.com
In this morning's @pghguild.com strike paper, we welcome all the @newsguild.org and @cwaunion.bsky.social members and workers and guests who will be meeting in Pittsburgh over the next several days. And on a calmer note, there's this stretch of Larimer Avenue. www.unionprogress.com
All Together Now! is a four-day music festival across the region for Pittsburgh's immigrant community that starts Thursday and Helen Fallon has a preview. Ed Blazina, meanwhile, ramps up his road reportage in Braddock and Rankin. It's in today's @pghguild.com strike paper: www.unionprogress.com
Shelf find.
The @pghguild.com strike paper's Ed Blazina has a heads-up about more Pittsburgh roadwork this week: www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/05/t...
Reports the @pghguild.com strike paper's Ed Blazina, this week's road construction zones include several on the Parkway East: www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/03/p...
Got too much stuff? Eco Scouts to the rescue! Helen Fallon reports first-person on the @paresourcescouncil.bsky.social / Allegheny CleanWays program in the @pghguild.com Sunday strike paper: www.unionprogress.com/2025/08/03/s...
From the @pghguild.com strike paper's Ed Blazina, Pittsburgh weekend roadwork: "Here are the roads to avoid if you don’t want to sit in traffic." www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/31/l...
From @pitairport.bsky.social's Blue Sky News: LOTS of people want to try the new Pittsburgh airport: blueskypit.com/new-terminal...
Something cool to do this weekend among the trees on the North Side: Says Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy's Erin Tobin, "Reggae at Riverview is a celebration of joy, connection, and this amazing greenspace we’re proud to steward." www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/31/r...
The @pghguild.com strike paper's Helen Fallon previews Saturday's McKeesport drive-up diaper distribution: “Families who are struggling financially make tough choices, but not being able to adequately diaper their baby should not be one of them." www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/30/n...
The @pghguild.com strike paper soldiers on, as Ed Blazina tells us what those five new platforms popping up across Downtown are all about (getting bus riders off sidewalks). And we have some new ads by one of our unwavering supporters, Barrel & Flow, which is happening Aug. 9. www.unionprogress.com
New by me —> The vulturous hedge fund Alden Global Capital has been prevented from taking over @dallasnews.com — thanks to one final act of stewardship by the family that has run the paper for more than a century. www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/alde...
On this day in labor history, the roughly two dozen @pghguild.com workers who still are on strike at a company that an administrative law judge and the @nlrbgov.bsky.social board agree is breaking federal labor continue to be the longest ongoing strike in the country.
The @pghguild.com strike paper's Ed Blazina writes about a new PennDOT campaign to ensure drivers "Check Your Height" so the tops of their vehicles don't crash into bridges. As you can read in his other story, there's enough bridge and road construction going on: www.unionprogress.com
The @pghguild.com strike paper's Ed Blazina: 5 new Downtown bus stations on Pittsburgh Regional Transit's University Line -- Fifth & Ross St., Fifth & William Penn Place, Fifth & Market St., Sixth & Wood St., and Steel Plaza at Sixth & Grant St. -- open today: www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/27/u...
The PUP's Ed Blazina reports from Pittsburgh Regional Transit's monthly board meeting where "more than two dozen transit advocates ... encouraged the board to use some of its reserve funds to delay the scheduled [service] cutbacks until September 2026 ..." www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/26/a...
From the @pghguild.com TGIF strike paper, it's going to be a light weekend for roadwork, but a heavy weekend for streets play, and today is National Carousel Day: www.unionprogress.com
I wrote about the steps local, state and federal agencies are supposed to take when someone dies in a jail in Ohio. We also included what records in those investigations should be available to the public. www.themarshallproject.org/2025/07/24/c...
The @pghguild.com Thursday strike paper leads with @stevemellon412.bsky.social's report on @deluzio.house.gov continuing to push for the passage of the Railway Safety Act. And you can ride the Schenley Park carousel for free on Friday, which is National Carousel Day: www.unionprogress.com
Update from the Next Gen Newsroom's @thathakas.bsky.social: " @governor.pa.gov signed a bill this week touted by lottery officials as a way to bring in millions of additional dollars for programs benefiting senior citizens, such as low-cost prescriptions ..." www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/23/p...
Striking page designer @johnnysantapup.bsky.social joins the @aflcio.org “It’s Better in a Union” bus tour to talk about what union solidarity means after over 1000 days on strike against @post-gazette.com.
PUP's @stevemellon412.bsky.social reports from the @aflcio.org Pittsburgh stop: "So when those days get hard and when you take those punches in your face, in your gut, in your back ... you remember that you have power. We are the movement of the now. We fight.” www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/22/a...
It tastes really good.
This wasn't my best lattice work, but it's so fucking hot, the dough wasn't playing, so I slapped it down without much weaving and pushed it into the toaster oven! :)
Too soon? PUP's Ed Blazina: "Under the Safe Routes to School program, the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure will make intersection improvements on the streets around Pittsburgh Arlington Pre K-8, Propel Hazelwood K-8 and Pittsburgh Faison K-5." www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/21/p...
Grand Prix Ale.
From the @pghguild.com Sunday strike "paper," Ed Blazina reports on how the Pennsylvania Turnpike reduced work-zone crashes by more than 20%. “It wasn’t any one thing." Plus, sign up with @paresourcescouncil.bsky.social to recycle your household chemicals and difficult junk: www.unionprogress.com
Today's @pghguild.com strike paper leads with a double dose of Ed Blazina -- reporting on how Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s board members are exploring other options to avoid massive cuts in February, and on all roadwork scheduled around the region this weekend and next week: www.unionprogress.com
i can’t remember anything that has felt more foisted upon us than AI. repeatedly telling us why we actually need is like thinking a joke will get funnier the more you explain it.
Ed Blazina: Tuesday, Riverlife held the ribbon cutting for Shore Thing, a $1.3 million floating family entertainment venue on the Allegheny River -- 10 linked small barges with picnic tables, a refreshment stand, artwork, nets for lounging above the water... www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/16/r...
New in the @pghguild.com strike paper from Point Park University’s Next Generation Newsroom and @thathakas.bsky.social: www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/15/f...
I went to Pittsburgh to cover the Post-Gazette strike in 2022. My story published when the strike was about 100 days old. At 1,000 days, the @pghguild.com strike hasn't ended despite rulings in the union's favor. It's the longest ongoing strike in the country. www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/a-th...
The @pghguild.com strike paper leads with a new private faith-based academy opening this fall in West Mifflin, and more summer traffic disruptions around the region: www.unionprogress.com
Tyler Pecyna would be happy to toss a copy of his excellent @pghguild.com strike "paper" newsletter onto your digital stoop. Just subscribe at www.unionprogress.com/subscribe
Hard agree. I’ve bristled when some managers have said “it’s inevitable, we need to learn to work with it, use it.” How about no? How about we…don’t do that
"Work on the $70.1 million project to upgrade the [Parkway East] between Churchill and Monroeville will kick into high gear Monday with a single lane closed in each direction all day and a second lane closed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily through early August." www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/14/n...
The Sunday @pghguild.com strike paper: @stevemellon412.bsky.social reports on a Pitt study on East Palestine residents' exposure to vinyl chloride and on the chemical's history "of deceit and greed," while the Next Generation Newsroom's Erin Yudt reports on big education cuts: www.unionprogress.com
Today's @pghguild.com strike paper previews the good trouble planned for this weekend and next week, documents another drop in pedestrian deaths per @ghsahq.bsky.social, and tells you where to avoid driving this weekend: www.unionprogress.com
From my wife:
Today's @pghguild.com strike paper leads with a hot take from @weareliuna.bsky.social: www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/10/c...
The @pghguild.com strike paper leads with Ed Blazina's story on the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside program that opens Monday for projects that meet special transportation needs, improve safe access to schools and more. PennDOT has a webinar this morning: www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/09/p...
Cheers, Mr. Ruedrich!
Damselfly?
The @pghguild.com's @stevemellon412.bsky.social reports from Philadelphia, where he and other strikers heard oral arguments in their case and stood with striking city workers, and Helen Fallon reports from Braddock, where Heritage Community Initiatives is giving free rides: www.unionprogress.com
Good morning from the @pghguild.com strike paper, in which Ed Blazina writes about a section of the Pittsburgh Regional Transit Red Line that's closed for track replacement and about a lot of other road construction to avoid if you can: www.unionprogress.com
The @pghguild.com Sunday strike "paper" covers the @50501pittsburgh.bsky.social / Casa San Jose "Stand with Immigrants" rally Downtown and @ura.org's 15-acre solar field and 55-acre Frick Park expansion in Swisshelm Park that's briefly closing Nine Mile Run Trail: www.unionprogress.com
1 to 3 today: www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/03/d...
The @pghguild.com strike paper's Ed Blazina has a scoop on how the Turnpike won’t be able to finish the southern section of the long-awaited Mon-Fayette Expressway unless the state Legislature provides another revenue source. Meanwhile, he's at the closed Jacks Run Bridge No. 3: unionprogress.com
The @pghguild.com strike paper heads into the July 4 weekend with an update on a rebellious young eagle and a preview of Saturday's "Stand with Immigrants" rally: www.unionprogress.com
Nice to see the Pittsburgh Independent is back, with a story today on a rapper's excessive force lawsuit and ... "Bloomfield Beach" is also a summer song? www.pghindependent.com
The Wednesday @pghguild.com strike paper leads with Ed Blazina's report, "The Pennsylvania Turnpike will continue its trend to lower the annual increase in toll rates in January, when rates will increase by 4%." This year it was 5% www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/02/t...
Butter Tarts. 🇨🇦
Happy Canada Day!
"Traffic statistics [from] June 2021 showed 54% of drivers exceeded the speed limit of 25 miles an hour with a high speed of 51 miles an hour. The city recorded six crashes involving pedestrians at this intersection from 2020 to 2024." Now calming is coming: www.unionprogress.com/2025/07/01/p...
This is really good panel discussion for anyone who's doing or interested in doing "Worker-Led Media." Thank you @wgaeast.bsky.social (and other sponsors) and moderator @mattdpearce.com, along with @maxrn.bsky.social and other practicing panelists: www.wgaeast.org/event/worker...
AP Story about the EPA Declaration of Dissent apnews.com/article/decl... 1/n