A Butler County Common Pleas Court judge is expected to issue a ruling today on whether to extend a preliminary injunction against picketing at the Butler Eagle by striking union employees of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

At the end of a three-hour hearing Monday, Judge William Robinson, who granted the preliminary injunction Friday, said he has 24 hours to rule on making the injunction final or dissolving it.

The ruling will affect picketing at the Eagle, which has been printing the Post-Gazette newspaper since Oct. 15. Post-Gazette employees from several unions went on strike in a dispute over wages and health care benefits, and protests affecting distribution of the newspaper.

Post-Gazette employees belonging to the Communications Workers of America locals 14842 and 14827, Teamsters local 205/211 and Pressmen’s Union local 24M/9N went on strike Oct. 5. Employees who belong to the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which represents newsroom workers, walked out last week. Some members of the Writers Guild have crossed the picket lines in Pittsburgh and returned to work.

Robert Weber, Post-Gazette director of operations, said the last three-year contracts with the unions expired in 2017, and the sides haven’t been able to agree on new contracts since then.

Until the strike, the newspaper was printed at a Post-Gazette facility in Clinton, Findlay Township in Allegheny County. Union picketers showed up at that facility and other company properties when the strike began, Weber said. On Oct. 15, picketers placed “tack boards” of lumber with protruding nails on the ground and used a vehicle to help them block delivery trucks from entering or leaving the facility, he said.

The Post-Gazette distributes a print product two days a week on Thursdays and Sundays.

On Oct. 19, picketers temporarily blocked box trucks and vans carrying the Post-Gazette from the Eagle, Weber said. Each delivery truck and van is accompanied by two security agents in another vehicle. Weber said the Post-Gazette hired independent contractors to drive the trucks and vans, and the security agents.

Picketers then followed a truck and van to a drop-off location in McKees Rocks in Allegheny County, where newspaper carriers pick up the papers they deliver, he said.

One of several video recordings of interactions between striking workers and the truck and van drivers showed strikers yelling obscenities at the drivers at the McKees Rocks drop-off site, Weber said. He said two tires on delivery vehicles were punctured during the confrontation. Each tire cost $250, he said.

A video recorded Oct. 22 outside of the Eagle, which is located in a residential neighborhood, shows picketers temporarily blocking a van trying to leave the facility, he said. The video recorded sounds of a person calling the van driver a “scab” and a person saying “don’t let them out,” and shows a picket sign striking a security car.

Weber said a man wearing a mask over his face threw an object that broke a window on a van, and the van was left with dents from protesters striking or pounding it. A second window was broken on another van. The windows cost nearly $1,000 to replace, and estimates for repairing the body damage haven’t been received, he said.

“Someone sprayed something” during that confrontation, Weber said.

Picketers followed a truck and van to a drop-off site in Bridgeville, Allegheny County, where a video showed a picketer shining a high-output flashlight to obstruct the vision of drivers trying to enter a security code to open a locked gate, and other picketers blocking the trucks, he said. The video also shows picketers trying to hold the gate closed to prevent a truck driver from entering, he said.

On Oct. 26, picketers, again, blocked Post-Gazette delivery trucks at the Eagle, Weber said. He said there were no incidents at the Eagle this past weekend.

Under cross examination, Weber said he doesn’t know what was sprayed from the delivery van as it left the Eagle on Oct. 22.

Steven Winslow, the attorney representing the unions, said it was bear spray.

However, Weber said picketers were banging on the van and trying to open the passenger side door when the spray was emitted. He said people were coughing after the spraying.

He said no one was arrested at any of the protests and the delivery trucks were temporarily delayed.

Tammy Schuey, Eagle general manager, said picketers blocked one truck at the Eagle on Oct. 19 before leaving, but there was an escalation on the night of Oct. 22.

“That night was a much different story,” Schuey said.

She said she remained inside the building for safety and didn’t see everything that occurred, but learned about the damages by watching the video.

On Oct. 26, Butler City and Butler Township police moved the protesters away from the exit so trucks could arrive and depart, she said.

On Oct. 29, with the preliminary injunction in place, about 15 picketers arrived at the Eagle. A “heavy police presence” consisting of city, township and state police were also there that night, and no incidents were reported, she said.

Schuey said Eagle employees are concerned about their safety when they enter and leave the property, and one employee reported being yelled at by a picketer.

Zachary Tanner, a striking interactive web designer for the Post-Gazette and president of a Communications Workers of America local, said he joined the Oct. 22 picket line at the Eagle.

He said trucks drove into picketers who formed a line to block the trucks from leaving.

Tanner said he was standing on the passenger side of a van from which bear spray, Mace or another form of toxin was sprayed from the front passenger side window. He said he and the other picketers began coughing from the spray.

He said someone broke a window on the van and a sign was thrown at it.

Similar testimony was given by John Clark, president of the union representing Post-Gazette mailroom staff, who said he attended pickets on Oct. 19, 22 and 26 at the Eagle.

Other union officers said they attended protests at other locations.