The Long Beach Media Guild announced Friday that at least 60% of the bargaining unit received layoff notices shortly after newsroom employees unionized and went on strike to protest impending cuts.
The unit, which is seeking voluntary recognition from its employer, the Long Beach Press Initiative, said nine of its members have been laid off, while three of its surviving members remain on strike. The Long Beach Post's entire staff has been reduced from 17 to eight, said a source close to the nonprofit who was not authorized to comment.
CEO Melissa Evans and the board of the Long Beach Journalism Initiative, the parent nonprofit of the Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal, said Friday in a statement that “financial conditions were the sole reason for these reductions” following budget cuts. The Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal transitioned from corporate ownership to nonprofit ownership four months ago.
“Every member of staff, as well as our Board of Directors, knew that this transition to a nonprofit organization carried with it a great deal of uncertainty and risk,” the statement read.
“We completely changed our business model, relying more on donors and grants. We had made great strides — Long Beach is a wonderful, generous city — but taking too many paychecks was threatening our ability to pay our bills now and in the long term.
The Long Beach Media Guild claimed that all nine employees were laid off without severance pay. Evans did not respond to The Times' request for comment on this allegation.
Evans announced the impending layoffs Thursday during an all-employee meeting, after which the bargaining unit went on strike, said Jason Ruiz, a City Hall reporter for the Long Beach Post and a spokesman for the Long Beach Media Guild.
Long Beach Post workers moved to unionize under the Media Guild of the West two weeks after sending a letter to the Long Beach Journalism Initiative board outlining their concerns about recent leadership decisions, alleged labor violations and other grievances, Ruiz said. .
The Long Beach Media Guild requested voluntary employer recognition last Wednesday after the entire bargaining unit signed union cards.
The bargaining unit considers Friday's layoffs an act of retaliation and is filing an unfair labor practice claim against the Long Beach Journalism Initiative, Ruiz said. The striking employees are seeking workplace protections, increased wages and benefits covering physical and mental health, as well as updated diversity, equity and inclusion standards for deployment and coverage.
“If we move away, Long Beach will become a news desert,” Ruiz said. “Our community… deserves more than this.”
The Media Union of the West has been aligning with the Long Beach Journalism Initiative to schedule a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, though it is unclear how such an election would move forward after a majority of eligible voters are laid off.
“Layoffs are the last thing we wanted to do, and we have taken every measure to avoid job cuts,” Evans and the Long Beach Initiative board of directors told the Press in their statement.
“The employees affected by these layoffs today are talented journalists and support staff members, and they do not deserve to be out of work. But our commitment to our donors, foundations and our readers is to ensure that the newspaper and the work we do survive this critical transition.”
This is the latest round of layoffs to hit the newspaper industry. The Los Angeles Times announced last January that it would lay off more than 20% of its newsroom, which is also represented by the Media Guild of the West.
