The president of a union representing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newsroom employees is facing a misdemeanor charge after an incident during a contract negotiation session Wednesday at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown.
Newspaper Guild President Zack Tanner was charged with criminal mischief after allegedly throwing a chair at a hotel conference room wall and causing damage, according to city police. Damages to the room totaled $1,000 plus a loss to the hotel of $800 for taking the room out of service for repairs, city police said. A summons will be issued by mail.
The bargaining session with the Post-Gazette was the first since July 2023 and several years after the expiration of labor agreements in 2017. Guild members were among several unions that struck the newspaper two years ago in a dispute over health care benefits. Earlier this year, the newspaper settled with Teamsters Local 211/205, one of the striking unions.
An attorney representing the Newspaper Guild said the Post-Gazette was “instrumental in causing” the incident at the hotel. In an email response to a query on Thursday, Joseph J. Pass, from the Downtown firm of Jubelirer Pass & Intrieri, said, “The actions and behavior of [its] representative were outrageous and non productive to reaching any agreement.”
He said the company’s representatives “came to the bargaining table with the same old proposals that the NLRB told them were in violation of the law.”
In response to the incident, attorney Richard C. Lowe, of the Nashville law firm of King & Ballow, representing the company, sent a letter to Mr. Pass requesting confirmation that the union is responsible for the property damage and will pay for repairs.
The disturbance came two days before a status conference scheduled Friday before Judge Cathy Bissoon, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The judge is hearing arguments for a preliminary injunction sought by the National Labor Relations Board against the Post-Gazette. The Newspaper Guild is not part of the injunction proceeding.
First Published: November 14, 2024, 10:03 p.m.
Updated: November 15, 2024, 2:59 a.m.