Growing up less than a mile away from the site of the 1892 Homestead strike in Pittsburgh, a steadfast union city, I never thought my first picket line would be in Washington, D.C. 

On December 7, 2023, I spent my lunch break on the picket line alongside journalists from The Washington Post as the Washington Post Guild, representing more than 1,000 employees, continued ongoing negotiations with management. Their unit had spent the past 18…