Chants and shouts filled the air on West Broadway as the Long Beach Media Guild protested over the recent layoffs at Long Beach Post (LBP) and Long Beach Business Journal (LBBJ).
On March 22, LBP and LBBJ CEO Melissa Evans announced that nine staff members of the publication were to be laid off.
While the layoffs were in part due to financial reasons, according to Evans’ official written statement, employees had just started the process to unionize when the layoffs occurred.
Jason Ruiz, a current city hall reporter for the Long Beach Post, said the situation started when staff at the publications lost faith in Evans’ leadership abilities after she violated labor laws.
According to Ruiz, the alleged violations include a lack of overtime payment and forcing employees to work while not being directly employed by the company when it was transitioning to a nonprofit.
Although unspoken, it was also implied to employees that they might not be rehired during the company’s transition if they did not continue to do work.
In an interview with the Daily Forty-Niner, Evans herself said that she never told employees they would be fired for not working during that time period. She asked her employees if they could volunteer to do work. However, a human resources consultant told her she could not ask that and had to compensate them.
“So we decided to do that. We felt, myself and the board, felt like that was the right thing to do,” Evans said. “We will be compensating them for that time.”
The employee complaints to the publications’ Board of Directors, however, made little difference for the journalists.
“It became clear to us that they were not taking us seriously or at least not moving with the urgency that we thought they should be, given the things that we had outlined in that letter. We decided to start the unionization process to force our way to the table,” Ruiz said.
Employees knew of impending layoffs, but an internal investigation from human resources about those complaints was supposed to freeze those plans. Yet, on March 21, Ruiz heard Evans was going through with the layoffs the next day.
“Nobody in the newsroom was approached about taking a pay cut about any kind of cost-saving reductions, including herself taking a pay cut because she took a pay increase in December. She said that she did not give herself a raise, the board made her take a raise,” Ruiz said.
When speaking on her new salary, Evans said making the switch to a nonprofit came with a whole new workload and salary, as she went from an executive editor to CEO. The salary took on a 10% increase, which means she now makes $100,000.
Evans said that the layoffs were supposed to happen on March 15, but because the HR consultant was already looking into the lack of overtime compensation for the employees, she wanted to give her more time to look into the situation before layoffs. However, since the publications were very short on their budget, she had to make the cuts at the time she did.
Those who were laid off were part of the newly formed union. Two of the nine individuals were not originally supposed to be laid off.
Ruiz said those two individuals were included since they played a major part in the formation of the union. He believes it was retaliation and that the company is attempting to save face by claiming they had to reimburse reporters who worked two weeks while unemployed, leading to layoffs to offset costs.
Evans has confirmed this is the reason for the additional layoffs, but denies that the additions were retaliation. She said that since February she knew she had to lay off six to eight employees, but due to unexpected costs such as those reimbursements, the number of employees went up.
“Myself and the board decided to go with a more aggressive strategy and the reason for that was so that we have a shot to put us in the best position to remain solvent,” Evans said.
This specific situation led the union to file a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board.
“Melissa has also joked openly about firing people if they ever unionize the newsroom, and as you can see here, nobody’s laughing,” Ruiz said.
While Evans claimed in her official statement that she did everything she could to keep the layoffs from happening, Ruiz said that was not the case. Instead, LBP reporters and workers came up with a proposal to save their jobs from the oncoming layoffs.
“I’ve signed on to take a 20% pay cut because we are, as a guild, committed to continuing the coverage of the city of Long Beach and we’re willing to make sacrifices, even personal ones, to continue to do that,” Ruiz said.
Dennis Dean, former LBP director of operations and product, said that while the Guild was able to come up with their proposal within a few hours, Evans jumped to layoffs instead of other solutions. He attributed the decision to a lack of imagination, experience and business acumen.
“I was sad and I was angry about the legacy of the Post that we’ve built over the last decade and that Melissa has essentially torpedoed 12 years of work in four months,” Dean said.
Evans said that she looked through many scenarios before making the layoffs. When she was made aware of the Guild’s proposal on March 22, it was too late and it was unfeasible with the cash levels the publication was at during that time.
Both Evans and the Guild have said that the specifics of the proposal have not been seen by the Board of Directors, but Evans has said that she is open to listening to the feedback from the Guild on their proposal.
“We are ready and willing to work with the Guild,” Evans said.
The Guild has seen positive reception from the community during the protest, with people walking up to learn more about their fight and drivers honking their horns in support. They were also supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), which came in solidarity to protest with the journalists.
Jenna Thompson, communications director for UFCW local 324, was contacted by the Guild to see if they would help bring support to the cause. She said she wanted to bring that support as the Post had covered protest and worker stories of the local union chapter in the past.
“Long Beach is in such, already, a news desert with the Long Beach Press-Telegram and then with these two papers losing 60% of their workforce. There’s not going to be the journalists here in the city to tell the community stories and the worker stories that need to be told,” Thompson said.
Ruiz also shared the sentiment, saying if things continue the way they are, the Post will only have three reporters and one photographer on staff. This would deeply affect the way the publication keeps an eye on city officials and city issues.
“Long Beach needs a newspaper with considerable size and power and ability to cover the city, and there’s no team better than these guys. So we’re together ‘til the end,” Dean said.
There is currently a GoFundMe page to support those affected by the recent layoffs. So far, the page has raised about $7,355 of the $10,000 goal.