Good Afternoon everyone, 

Welcome back to another edition of the Keystone Labor Report, and happy Veterans Day to all who served. I hope you enjoy a peaceful afternoon and time to yourself if you’re lucky enough to have the day off. 

I am writing this on Monday afternoon with Veterans Day. So please forgive me if this newsletter seems a bit dated with all of the government shutdown news that’s happening up-to-the-minute in Washington, DC.

(Photo: Sean Kitchen)

A group of eight US Senate Democrats, led by Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), caved on Sunday and voted for a budget bill that could bring the government shutdown to an end and keep it operating through the end of January.

The deal boasts federal workforce protections and guarantees a year of SNAP, but it didn’t codify subsidies for the Affordable Care Act that expire this year, which was the reason for the shutdown in the first place.

In return for their votes, US Senate Republicans instead promised a future vote on a bill to extend the ACA tax credits. However, US House Speaker Mike Johnson stated that House Republicans won’t agree to any such promise.

Close to 500,000 Pennsylvanians purchase their health care through Pennie, the state’s ACA marketplace. Advocates and officials fear that 250,000 Pennie customers could lose coverage due to rising premiums. 

This is leaving some Democrats feeling burned by the vote, especially after the slew of party victories in last week’s elections.

“ I just want say that last Tuesday after a lot of hard work by a lot of groups around the state and in this region, canvassing, talking to voters for months and months to get out the vote, we succeeded in giving the Democrats a huge victory,  and we are just surprised that they would give in so easily on this,” Vicki Miller, a leader with Philadelphia Indivisible, told reporters during a press conference on Monday. 

“ We gave [Democrats] a big victory, and they turned around and gave a victory to Trump, making the healthcare crisis worse and giving a big loss to all of the folks who have healthcare.”

(Photo: Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh (TNG-CWA Local 38061))

Congratulations to striking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette journalists. 

After more than 1,100 days, journalists at the newspaper won out when the US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in their favor, ordering the Post-Gazette to repeal the more than five-years’ worth of workers’ rights violations and to compensate the workers who were impacted by those violations. 

Journalists walked off the job in October 2022 after the company refused to bargain in good faith with their reporters, making the strike one of the longest ongoing media strikes. 

“Ever since Post-Gazette management ripped apart our contract in 2020, our union of journalists has been standing and fighting the lawless union-busting that we’ve been subjected to every step of the way,” Andrew Goldstein, striking education reporter and Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh president, said in a statement.

“When we walked out on strike in October 2022 it wasn’t just for us and our rights as workers, we were fighting for fair treatment for the future journalists in Pittsburgh and beyond. Today’s victory vindicates our fight and shows that NewsGuild workers will never back down no matter how long it takes.”

(Photo: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

I just want to provide a quick update from last week’s newsletter on the planned Starbucks barista strike this Thursday. 

Starbucks workers are planning to go on strike for Red Cup Day, the one of the company’s busiest days of the year, and some workers are planning on having rallies in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster on Thursday.