PITTSBURGH, PA. - Yesterday, Semafor reported that Pittsburgh NewsGuild President Zack Tanner was arrested for yet another violent incident. This is the third time that the scandal-ridden union leader has faced criminal charges stemming from his violent behavior.
Last month, Tanner, in yet another fit of violent rage, threw a chair into a wall at a hotel in downtown Pittsburgh during a bargaining session with company lawyers present, creating a large hole in the wall. Now, he is once again facing criminal charges for his conduct.
Last year, the Pittsburgh NewsGuild was also forced to pay a legal settlement to me after Tanner punched me and sent me threatening emails depicting how he wanted me murdered and raped. The incident in 2022 occurred after I exposed how leaders in my union had covered up the sexual misconduct by Tanner’s mentor, former Pittsburgh NewsGuild President Michael Fuoco, who the New York Times dubbed “the Harvey Weinstein of Pittsburgh.”
Rather than spend money on promoting the union’s publication, Pittsburgh Union Progress, which has won praise from local activists, they are wasting money defending a toxic union leader. Tanner’s leadership of the union was so toxic that nearly half of his union crossed the picket line on the first day of the Pittsburgh NewsGuild strike in 2022.
For years, Tanner and his powerful allies on social media have attempted to defame me as we proved our claims successfully in court, but this violent incident, the third for which he has faced criminal charges, raises troubling questions about why union members allowed him to remain in a leadership post.
University of Texas Professor Robert Prentice studied the case and concluded that the power structures of the Pittsburgh NewsGuild, under both Michael Fuoco and his protegee Zack Tanner, were set up in such a way as to reward those who covered up sexual misconduct in its ranks while attacking union members like me
“The active participants were drawn into the network, influenced by the harasser’s power, charisma, and ability to control and shape information. They often protected the harasser by making excuses, shielding them from criticism, and sabotaging victims who complained,” wrote Prentice in 2021. “Passive enablers tended to turn a blind eye to the harassing behavior, making light of it or rationalizing it.”
Given the attacks on unions, there is a tendency within organized labor to “circle the wagons” and keep quiet about internal problems, but how does spending thousands of dollars to defend violence in the labor movement benefit anyone?
The NewsGuild even spent money trying to subpoena the names of sources, who had cooperated with a New York Times investigation into sexual misconduct in the union.
However, it appears that Tanner's most recent arrest may have broken the silence within the union at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. One member of the local NewsGuild bargaining committee even publicly denounced Tanner to Penn Capital-Star, the first time that Tanner has been publicly denounced by his fellow union members.
Maybe now that Tanner is facing criminal charges, the union will be forced to finally remove Tanner. The only chance their union has to win the longest strike in the country is to change leadership and hopefully Pittsburgh NewsGuild members are beginning to realize this.
The New York Times once labeled me an “abrasive gadfly” for my role as a pro-union reporter in exposing sexual misconduct. Many people have asked me, why have I taken on a topic as controversial as sexual misconduct within the labor movement with such vigor?
While we cannot control what union busters will do, we, as a labor movement, cannot allow toxic, violent behavior to divide our much-needed solidarity. As a labor reporter, I’ve covered countless episodes of dysfunctional unions that lose because their leaders abuse their members.
For The Guardian, I covered how the UFCW was defeated after employers highlighted the well-documented sexual misconduct of a San Diego union leader.
For more than 6 years, I have covered how SEIU’s healthcare bargaining in Northern California was set back as the union purged union organizers who spoke up against its leaders. Our coverage resulted in one of the most high profile legal settlements in the history of the labor movement.
The attacks that anti-union employers will employ against unions will be brutal during the Trump Era, but we in the labor movement must clean up our own act if we are to survive.
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