Labor officials have received a green light to pursue an injunction in federal court against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper for allegedly violating its employees rights.

A spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board confirmed to HuffPost that the agency approved a request by a regional director in Pennsylvania to seek the temporary injunction. The petition is likely to be filed in federal court in the coming days.

Journalists and production employees have been on a grueling 18-month strike amid a battle with the newspapers owners, Block Communications.

An administrative law judge at the NLRB ruled last year that the Post-Gazette failed to bargain in good faith, and that it illegally imposed work conditions on the newsrooms union, an affiliate of the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America. The union says the company left workers with significantly higher health care costs, less vacation time and weaker job protections.

Depending on the scope of the injunction request, the labor board could ask that a judge order the newspaper back to the bargaining table with the union, or force the paper to rescind changes it made to employees work terms without the unions approval.

Its been a long wait, but this is a big relief for us, said Natalie Duleba, a designer at the paper whos on strike and serves as the local unions secretary. The ultimate goal is us getting back in the office. Thats always been the goal to get back to work, just under fair working conditions.

The board tends to seek injunctions against employers only under special circumstances, when officials believe they need to stop ongoing unfair labor practices while a case is being litigated.

A spokesperson for the newspaper did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

The unions contract with the Post-Gazette expired in 2017, and the two sides were unable to come to terms on a new agreement. In 2020, the newspaper announced they had reached an impasse and imposed working terms on the union, according to labor board filings.

The administrative law judge found the newspaper had declared the impasse prematurely and refused to bargain, and that it had led union activists to believe they were being illegally surveilled. The latter finding stemmed from an incident involving security guards at a 2020 protest outside the home of publisher John Block.

In a separate case, an arbitrator ruled that the Post-Gazette had to reimburse employees for higher health care premiums. The company challenged the finding, but a federal judge and an appeals court later ruled in the unions favor. The company was ordered to pay out more than $100,000 to employees.