Last month, four immigrant workers and their supporters braved single-digit temperatures to protest against a subcontractor they claimed never paid them for more than two weeks of work they did at a Courtyard Marriott in Robinson Township.

Antonio, one of those workers who only gave his first name in a Jan. 6 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, said in Spanish to the crowd of protesters, “We’re calling on the hotel to put pressure on the [sub] contractor to get our pay.”

The group of four Latino immigrants were hired to paint and clean rooms at the Marriott by a subcontractor, Oscar Benitez, of Atlanta, that advertised for workers at Las Palmas grocery store in Brookline, according to Guillermo Perez of Pittsburgh’s chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. The subcontractor was hired by National Custom Inc., a Georgia-based construction company. Perez says the workers’ initial contract was for $300 a room and after 10 days of work and no pay, Antonio walked off the job. The other three other workers negotiated a new contract for $12 and hour and were paid for 30 hours, but then were not paid for an additional seven days they worked.

In response to stalled contract negotiations and company demands for steep concessions, newsroom employees of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will begin a byline strike against management.

Pittsburgh City Paper confirmed the action through several P-G staff members, who wished to remain anonymous. CP also read the email alerting employees of the action.

The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh represents reporters, copy editors and photographers at the P-G. Employees with the guild have been working without a contract since March 31, 2017.

During his 15 years as a U.S. congressman, former Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Upper St. Clair) held strict socially conservative views, but supported enough liberal economic views that some considered him a moderate. Murphy resigned amidst scandal last year, and a special election for his seat will be held March 13.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Saccone (R-Elizabeth) was nominated by Republicans to compete in the election against former U.S. Assistant Attorney Conor Lamb (D-Mount Lebanon). And recent support from conservative and libertarian political-advocacy organizations suggest Saccone is more economically conservative than Murphy.

Saccone has been endorsed by economically conservative political-advocacy groups FreedomWorks for America and the Club for Growth, groups that have opposed Murphy in the past. And even though Saccone will speak at an event in North Fayette with President Donald Trump on Jan. 18, Saccone's support also suggests that he has different economic policy priorities than Trump, who won the district handily in 2016 thanks, in part, to populist, protectionist economic policies like criticizing free trade.

Pennsylvania state representative Daryl Metcalfe (R-Cranberry) has been known to take on many controversial topics. He regular shouts criticisms of “anchor babies,” gay tourists, and people who warn of the dangers of climate change. Serving as a state representative since 1999, Metcalfe has been spouting far-right views since before Breitbart existed. In fact, Metcalfe once claimed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he “was a Tea Partier before it was cool."

For the past several years Pittsburgh and other municipalities around the state have seen a number of rallies, marches, protests and strikes calling for an increase in the minimum wage. The Pennsylvania minimum wage was last raised in 2009, but at $7.25, it’s half the amount activists want.

State Rep. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin County) has spent the past four years trying to change that. In 2013, she first introduced legislation to raise the state’s minimum wage without success. Last month she proposed it again. The legislation would increase Pennsylvania’s hourly wage from $7.25 to $12 in 2018, and then increase it each year until it reaches $15 in 2024.

Up until May 20, Zachariah Reyes had worked seven days a week for two straight months, with the exception of holidays, at the Amazing Cafe in the South Side. He had been putting in extra hours to help the restaurant stay afloat after its head chef broke his arm and couldn't work. Even though he’s not officially a manager, he had taken on managerial duties like communicating with the owner in trying to replace faulty appliances. He hadn’t been given any perks or incentives for putting in the extra work. Reyes just felt he had too. He says this was true for many workers at Amazing Cafe, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant, which is attached to the Amazing Yoga studio on East Carson street.

Big news stories about how President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are introducing rules and laws meant to attack immigrants, organized labor and health care seem to be dropping weekly. While those stories get most of the public’s attention, for Pittsburghers and Pennsylvanians, it may be more prudent to watch the similar action happening at the state level in Harrisburg.

Republican, and even some Democratic lawmakers at the state capitol are also introducing bills attacking labor unions, immigrants and public health. And because of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government tends to avoid overreaching its authority on a multitude of state laws. So, the lesson from an April 14 roundtable discussion with local politicians, union members and immigrant-rights advocates: pay attention to Harrisburg.

“We came here to talk about some issues at the state level that need immediate attention,” said state Rep. Ed Gainey (D-Lincoln-Lemington) during the discussion at Smithfield Street Church of Christ in Downtown. “There are bills in Harrisburg that we need to fight against in order to protect working families.”

Some of the pieces of legislation the panel is objecting to are SB 10, a bill aimed at defunding so-called “sanctuary cities”; SB 300, a state effort to defund services at Planned Parenthood; and a series of “right-to-work” bills. (Right-to-work legislation, like SB 166 and SB 167, would allow non-union members to avoid paying into unions in unionized workplaces. Labor advocates say these laws undercut workers' right to organize.)

“These are really dangerous times ahead, where people are trying to strip our rights,” said Pittsburgh City Council President Bruce Kraus (D-South Side) to the crowd of about 20 in attendance.

Steve Kelly is member of the Service Employees International Union and a local custodian. He said at the roundtable that if right-to-work laws are put in place, it could “totally destroy” workers’ ability to collectively bargain.

“I can’t tell you how scared it makes me,” said Kelly.

Jeimy Sanchez-Ruiz of immigrant-rights group Casa San José said Pittsburgh's Latino-immigrant community is also frightened by bills like SB 10. Sanchez-Ruiz says SB 10, which would force local police officers to fully communicate and cooperate with federal immigration officials, would increase police racial profiling.

“We should not be afraid of our own police,” said Sanchez-Ruiz. She added that bills like these could push immigrants, even those who are legal residents and U.S. citizens, further into the shadows in fear that their families might be separated through deportation.

Gainey said to combat these bills in Harrisburg, Pittsburghers must react with organization.
“We as people have to continue to organize and protest, but also bring new voices to Harrisburg,” said Gainey.

And some of that organizing is already working. State reps. Dom Costa (D-Stanton Heights) and Tony DeLuca (D-Penn Hills) have both recently changed their stances on SB 10, vowing now to vote against the state’s anti-sanctuary city bill, thanks to protests and pressure from local immigrant-rights groups.

A group of immigrant-rights advocates from Casa San José and the Thomas Merton Center protested at DeLuca’s office on April 13; then staffers told the protesters that the state representative would change his vote on SB 10. (DeLuca still supports HB 459, a bill that would impose penalties on business that hire undocumented workers, which advocates argue could further encourage employers to keep all workers off the books, thus exposing employees, including the undocumented, to sub-standard wages and working conditions. Activists are pressuring DeLuca to change his stance on that bill too.)

Members of the April 14 roundtable told attendees they should participate in a May 1, May Day march for immigrant-rights to showcase their opposition to all of the bills discussed. Kelly of SEIU spoke about the importance of organized labor joining the causes of protecting healthcare and immigrant-rights.

“My heart breaks for what is happening to immigrants,” said Kelly. “I will be there [at the march] with you. I will be there with all of the workers.”

The May Day March will take place on May 1 at 3 p.m.at the intersection of Hot Metal and South Water streets in the South Side. And a related festival, open to the public, with food and music, will occur at Pittsburgh Federation Of Teachers Hall from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

On Nov. 29, hundreds of protesters took to the Downtown streets demanding that local fast-food restaurants, Giant Eagle grocery stores, and UPMC hospitals increase their minimum wages to $15 an hour and allow workers to form unions. The march was part of a national Day of Disruption, where cities across the country are protesting workers rights. 

More than 200 marchers shut down Liberty Avenue outside of the federal building and marched throughout Downtown to the McDonald's restaurant on Stanwix Street where CP News Editor Rebecca Addison reports some protesters were arrested.

Police are arresting #Fightfor15 protesters blocking street in Downtown Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/RAdzmn0yGR

— Rebecca Addison (@PghReporter) November 29, 2016

Right before the march started, traffic was disrupted and more than 20 buses lined up on Liberty Avenue waiting for the march to start. More than a dozen police officers were present during the march. They provided escort for the marchers on motorcycles and bicycles. None were in riot gear.

Glenn Grayson of labor coalition One Pittsburgh spoke to the crowd before the  march about the frustration with stagnant wages for workers in the service industry. “Enough is enough with business as usual,” said Grayson. He also expressed anxiety that the group’s fight will be even harder when President-elect Donald Trump assumes office in January. “Our future president has declared that the current minimum wage is too high.”

One of the workers to walk off the job today to protest was Erika Lee, a shuttle bus driver for UPMC who currently makes $13 an hour. She lives in Mckeesport with her three children. Lee said she had to take a stand to fight for her and her co-workers’ rights, specifically allowing them to form a union, which UPMC has blocked for years.

“There has been no progress on forming a union,” said Lee. “There is constant intimidation. Many of us stood up today, but not all of us. Some of us, they feared retaliation.”

Linda Zinkhan works at the Market District Giant Eagle in Robinson Township. Her catering department recently joined United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23 and was drawn to protest because of the hardships she and six other employers went through in joining UFCW. Zinkhan said that management stalled contract talks and made workers attend anti-union meetings.

“It has been a clawing fight,” said Zinkhan.

The fight to keep Martin Esquivel-Hernandez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, in Pittsburgh may be turning. Esquivel-Hernandez has been detained in a private, for-profit prison in Youngstown, Ohio, for more than six months. He has no prior criminal record, has been an advocate for immigrant rights here in Pittsburgh, and traveled more than 5,000 miles over eight months to reunite with his family in the Steel City. And now there is a possibility he will be released and returned home early next month.

Currently, his lawyer Sally Frick is negotiating a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney that would lower Esquivel-Hernandez’s felony re-entry charge to a lesser offense that could remove him from a list of priorities that keep him detained, according to Antonia Domingo, of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), who is advocating on behalf of Esquivel-Hernandez. A change of plea hearing is scheduled on Dec. 8.

However, even if his charge were to be downgraded, Esquivel-Hernandez would still need to have his U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer dropped, or he could be subject to an immigration court hearing and possibly still face deportation.

Esquivel-Hernandez’s supporters took to the streets on Nov. 15 to continue to tell his story and to demand that ICE Pennsylvania Field Officer Thomas Decker release Esquivel-Hernandez’s detainer. More than 100 protesters marched from Mellon Square in Downtown Pittsburgh to the federal office building on Liberty Avenue, where they occupied the street and chanted “Bring Martin home.”

LCLAA president Guillermo Perez spoke outside the federal building and pleaded to ICE to release Esquivel-Hernandez. “People like Martin make an important contribution to the community,” said Perez. “The undocumented are part of the American Dream. … Decker has the power to give prosecutorial discretion and return a good man to his family.”

The Pennsylvania ICE Field Office did not return request for comment by press time.

Esquivel-Hernandez's oldest daughter Shayla, who is 10, also spoke at the rally about the negative effects her father’s long absence is having on the family. “It is affecting me and my whole family,” said Shayla. “It’s getting harder to lie and tell my little brother that his dad is still just at work.”

Joining the campaign was a group of labor advocates that swelled the numbers, normally in the 10-15 range at previous rallies, to more than 100 marching through the street. Groups supporting Esquivel-Hernandez now include the Thomas Merton Center, Fight for $15, Casa San Jose and Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network. Kai Pang, of labor-coalition Pittsburgh United, said that labor supports all workers, including the undocumented.

“It’s more urgent than ever for us to protect the immigrant community, since there is a lot of uncertainty moving forward,” said Pang before the rally. “I feel compelled to stand with the most vulnerable, and I know a lot of people in the labor movement feel the same way too.”

However, LCLAA's Perez is concerned about Esquivel-Hernandez and other undocumented immigrants moving forward because of the campaign promises of President-elect Donald Trump. "What we face before us is concerning to say the least," said Perez. "The president-elect waged a campaign based on racism and xenophobia."

Trump has since walked back promises of a deportation force to round up and deport all 11 million or so undocumented immigrants, but other immigration policies are uncertain. But Esquivel-Hernandez does have an ally in the federal government with U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Forest Hills).

Doyle sent a representative to the march to offer support for the Esquivel-Hernandez family. “Congressman Doyle wanted to express his support, and he appreciates the role Martin has played in the community,” said Bridget Barrett of Doyle’s office.

Perez capped the rally with a typical chant used when communities advocate for Latino undocumented immigrants who face deportation. “Aqui estamos, y no nos vamos,” said Perez. We are here, and we are not going anywhere.

Everybody remembers their first one — the first story they report on when they’re hired at a newspaper. At my university’s paper, my first story was on the new Chick-Fil-A opening on campus. Here at the City Paper, it was a story on the Communication Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ strike against their employer, Verizon. So, let’s just call that an upgrade in terms of subject matter.

As reporters, we’re expected to sprint after a story — pen and notebook in hand. We attempt to hurdle over other news organizations; grill corporate spokespersons for a quote; and take complicated ideas and put them in layman's terms. All the while, we slowly turn to dust waiting for the records we requested back when Jesus was in grade school.

Then we struggle to get our damn audio recorder on for an interview, and we end up spilling that day's 12th cup of coffee all over ourselves. (Full disclosure: I don’t drink coffee, but hopefully you’re picking up what I’m putting down.) It can be thankless work. And sometimes the story evolves. In the case of this CWA strike story, that’s what happened.

This past weekend, after spending most of Friday afternoon walking the streets of Cleveland (yes, Cleveland. What of it?), I made my way to my favorite dive bar for what was going to be a weekend of loud, angry music. It was a great week so far. I was riding high on the anticipation of my first story, as a news intern, being published in the City Paper — my first reporting position outside of a university newspaper.

I was sitting at a booth on the back patio of said bar, catching up with a friend and talking about punk music. That’s when I received a Google Alert about the strike. It stated that the unions and Verizon came to a tentative contract agreement. I slunk down a bit in my seat and thought about what that agreement could possibly mean for what I’d written earlier that week.

I thought about the workers on the sidewalk 24 hours a day outside the Verizon technical center next door to our office. I thought about the interviews and b-roll a coworker and I shot of said workers, as they shook pom-poms and blasted an air horn at passing traffic. I thought about the Verizon representative I spoke with who couldn’t tell me anything about contract negotiations — as well as the union rep who couldn’t say anything either. And, I thought about the union workers I met one Saturday afternoon, who rallied with friends and family members outside a call center in the pouring rain, cheering with a chorus of car horns — still jovial after a full month of picketing.

Photo by William Ludt

The following day, I checked my inbox again. I received yet another update: The unions were going back to work. After 45 days of picketing, the largest strike in recent U.S. history ended, thus nixing my story.

Prior to the contract agreement, there was silence on both sides of the strike, so I hadn’t a clue when this was all going to end. The previous CWA strike in 2011 lasted 15 days, but contract negotiations carried on for months after. In this case, it seems that negotiations moved much faster.

Despite the whole triumph of the little guy over a corporation, I was disappointed finding out my story was pulled.

Photo by William Ludt

I was back in Pittsburgh after that weekend. I sat in my room — joints swollen, ears ringing — trying to cope with the heat. I moped around my apartment and attempted to achieve catharsis through eating a lot of pretzels and playing violent video games. But to no avail.

I’ll avoid cliche as much as my vocabulary permits, but that’s the way the news-cookie crumbles. One day, folks are standing outside of their employer’s corporate offices, with torso-length signs tethered around their necks, marching up and down the sidewalk, demanding that their wages and benefits return to what they once were. Then the next day, they find out that they’re returning to work.

Regardless of whether my story was printed or not, I put in the legwork. And I’m certain that something I report is bound to be published in the paper ... eventually.

My superiors at the City Paper suggested that I react to having my first full-fledged story pulled from publication by writing this blog post. And it also gives me the opportunity to show off some of the photos I shot between interviews. So, why not?