PITTSBURGH, PA. - In his bid to defeat Pittsburgh's progressive Mayor, Ed Gainey, in May's Democratic primary, Corey O'Connor has decided to cross the picket line at the Post-Gazette.
More shockingly, "Common Sense Change," a group funded primarily by several local construction unions that have endorsed O'Connor, has sent mailings to tens of thousands of Pittsburgh voters citing articles produced by scab Post-Gazette reporters.
The use of materials produced by scab reporters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is yet another example of O'Connor working with anti-union forces in his controversial bid to unseat Pittsburgh's first Black Mayor, Ed Gainey.
In March, The Guardian broke the story that Corey O'Connor had met and sought the support of anti-union operatives tied to billionaire Jeffrey Yass. For decades, he has been one of the biggest funders of anti-teacher union charter school political movements around the United States.
While O'Connor's ties to anti-union operatives are harder to point out to voters, the crossing of the Post-Gazette picket line is a rather brazen public display of contempt for organized labor.
For two and half years, reporters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have been on strike and have been replaced by scab reporters. The Pittsburgh NewsGuild has asked Democratic local officials to respect the picket line and not speak to the Post-Gazette.
Local Democratic members of Congress, including Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee, have both respected the picket line and refused to speak to the scab reporters, as has Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
"I made this decision because I believe in union, union jobs. I believe we're a Union City," said Gainey. "I believe that we should support our unions."
(Out of respect for the picket line at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Payday Report has not linked to the paper and will not link to them in this story)
However, O'Connor has played ball with the Post-Gazette, which still has tens of thousands of subscribers in Pittsburgh. The O'Connor campaign has invited them to events and given them quotes, and the newspaper has often echoed his attacks on Gainey.
Payday Report became aware of Common Sense Change's use of headlines from the anti-union Post-Gazette when we received two mailers from the organization in less than a week.
According to local NPR station WESA, the group Common Sense Change received $100,000 from the Laborers Union, another $100,000 from the Steamfitters, and $25,000 from the Plumbers Union.
Given the heavy investment by three local construction unions in Common Sense Change, it seems unusual that the group would use headlines produced by scab reporters in violation of the Pittsburgh NewsGuild's requests not to.
Previously, when Payday Report asked Common Sense Change director Mike Mikus about his ties to Global Strategy Group, he reaffirmed his support for principles of organized labor. However, Mikus refused to answer questions about why he crossed the NewsGuild's picket line by using attack pieces from the right-wing newspaper in mailings sent throughout Pittsburgh.
Despite being reassured through intermediaries that O'Connor would talk for an interview with Payday Report, he did not respond to repeated requests for comments on his relationship with the anti-union Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Nor did he denounce construction unions funding a group that was crossing the picket line by mailing out headlines produced by scab reporters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
For decades, African-American activists have accused the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of racist portrayals of black people in Pittsburgh. A 2020 study by the Heinz Endowment showed that when Black people were portrayed in the local press, they were either portrayed as criminals or athletes.
Many African-American activists worry that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has played an outsize role in attacking Gainey with Common Sense Change, flooding mailboxes with ads citing headlines from the anti-union newspaper.
While crime has gone down dramatically under Gainey's term, the Post-Gazette has repeatedly attacked Gainey, the city's first Black Mayor, for crime going up under his watch. To many Black activists in Pittsburgh, the attacks reek of race-baiting.
"That is a racist tactic feeding off the system's narrative of Black people," said African-American activist James Cole." They are using race-baiting to get people to influence people to go their way."
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