JD Vance has drawn the ire of labor activists, after crossing the picket line by publishing an opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and defying a strike by the staff.
On Thursday, the newspaper published an article with Vance’s byline, titled “Kamala Harris’ prejudice against Catholics,” where the Republican vice presidential candidate criticized Harris for skipping the Al Smith charity dinner in New York last week, which benefits Catholic charities. Trump attended and made crass, profanity-laden remarks to a room full of Catholic priests.
The newspaper’s workers have been on a long strike since October 2022 with its owner, Block Communications. The National Labor Relations Board ruled last year that the company illegally imposed new working conditions that increased employees’ health care costs and reduced their vacation time. The employees are unionized under the NewsGuild-CWA. (The New Republic’s staff are also represented by the NewsGuild-CWA.)
“JD Vance has crossed a very obvious picket line by striking Americans,” Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA, told HuffPost. “And JD Vance is a scab just like anybody else who crosses a picket line.”
Schleuss said that the picket line applies not only to journalists but also to contributors like Vance, even when they’re unpaid.
“You can deliver that message to any other publication,” Schleuss said. “Don’t go into work for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, don’t click on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, don’t share articles from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.”
The NewsGuild called out Vance on an X thread, including a graphic that spelled out SCAB in big letters over a picture of the Ohio senator.
One year ago, Vance visited the United Auto Workers picket line in Toledo, Ohio, attempting to demonstrate support for the automobile workers’ strike against General Motors, the Ford Motor Company, and Stellantis. In reality, Vance was making a blatant political move while retaining policies that hurt autoworkers.
Despite making the occasional pro-worker statement, Vance has never done anything beneficial for labor unions or worker organizations. He had fake autoworkers in the audience at a campaign stop in Michigan earlier this month. A few years ago, he helped fund a startup that imposed poor working conditions on its employees, and when they left in droves, the company replaced them with migrant workers. Working people supporting Vance, or on the fence, should take note of the vice presidential candidate’s actions instead of his rhetoric.
