A strike involving a group of union workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette began at midnight Thursday.Post-Gazette workers on strike: See the video above.Mailers and typographers are on strike in response to "unfair labor practices by the management of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, including unilateral changes to their health care plan," according to a statement from the Communications Workers of America.The workers on strike are members of CWA Locals 14842 and 14827 and are joined by members of Teamsters Local 205/211 and Pressmen's Union GCC/IBT Local 24M/9N, according to the statement."The workers, who are responsible for designing, printing, distributing, advertising sales and accounts receivables at the newspaper, have been working without a collective bargaining agreement since March 2017," the statement said. "Despite extensive negotiations, Post-Gazette management has refused to engage in good faith bargaining, and the workers have not had a pay raise in 16 years."On its website, the Post-Gazette said the strike affected production of its print edition Thursday. The newspaper's electronic version published as normal.The Post-Gazette released the following statement to Pittsburgh's Action News 4: "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has offered the unions several options that would ensure the continuation of the affected union employees' healthcare. One of these proposals included a 9% wage increase and enrollment in the company’s healthcare plan, which currently covers 2,600 Block Communications employees, including several unions, company executives and staff at the PG. It is not clear why this proposal, nor any of the others, is unsatisfactory to the unions and their membership. The Post-Gazette will continue to publish seven days a week."“They just have no regard for anybody,” said John Clark, president of Mailers Union Local 22. “We got backed into the corner on this one. When your employer cancels your health care, I think that's a big message, and this is the only remedy we have.”"The Post-Gazette proposes to provide an 'alleged increase in compensation' of 7% or 9%, but at the same time, the Post-Gazette keeps the 8% of the employees’ wages that they are currently contributing for good health care," the unions said in a joint statement. "The bottom line – the 7%/9% is either a 1% wage cut, or 1% increase. However, the employees must join a high deductible plan and pay 30% of the premium cost, which can conceivably cost a family more than $14,400 per year - in other words, double the cost the employees are currently paying."Workers will continue to form a picket line until the strike is resolved. Workers who spoke with Pittsburgh's Action News 4 said they've been with the company for decades. "We're the backbone to this. We do what we have to do to keep the company surviving, and this is what our payment is," said Jerry Tipton, who has been a teamster for nearly 50 years at the Post-Gazette. "It looks like they want to go digital 100 percent, whether that's today or a year from now or whatever. So, it's like they don't care about this.""They offered a 9 percent (wage increase) but 8 percent went back to them so it's just 1 percent," said Bruce Gradkowski, who is the chairman for mailers and has worked at the company for 46 years.The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which represents the Post-Gazette newsroom, supports the other unions but will not go on strike at this time, Guild chair Andrew Goldstein told Pittsburgh's Action News 4.He said Guild members will not cross the picket line but will work remotely and hold a byline strike, removing their names from their stories, in a show of solidarity.