Long Beach Post staffers face layoffs days after unionizing efforts commence

Long Beach Post staffers received notice of mass layoffs last week just days after initiating steps toward unionizing. 

The Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal have long been staples of the community and go-to sources for local news and city politics. In December of 2023, after decades of for-profit ownership, the joint publications were granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. 

Long Beach Post CEO Melissa Evans claims the change from for-profit to nonprofit newsroom is what led to the eventual layoffs. 

In an open letter published on The Long Beach Post website, Evans stated that the staff was informed at the end of February that the publication would have to make “significant cuts to personnel” in the newsroom. The CEO memo cited low operational funds as one of the primary reasons stating, “I and the board reached the conclusion that immediate layoffs were the only feasible option to keep the Post solvent.”

Long Beach Post staffers were quick to contest this version of events, saying that the organization did not act prudently in coming up with solutions to avoid layoffs. “Nobody in the newsroom was approached about furlough days, pay reductions, change in classification or asked if they were willing to go part-time or contract,” says Jason Ruiz, a Long Beach Post City Hall reporter, and employee of 12 years. 

Ruiz spoke to CALÓ News about the events that occurred before the firing of approximately two-thirds of the newsroom. He said the staff came together in early March and drafted a letter to the Board of Directors. 

The letter outlined several issues of concern, including numerous alleged labor law violations, which they claim happened under Evan’s watch as CEO. “We listed several examples of how she [Evans] was unfit as a business person to lead this organization in the right direction.” 

Ruiz also said that they recently discovered Evans received a pay raise in December after the newsroom shifted to a nonprofit model. 

After not receiving a response to their letter, the newsroom staff began discussing the next steps to form a union. They initially identified around 14 eligible members. On March 13, they wrote to the Board of Directors again, informing them of their intention to form a union and requesting recognition to begin negotiations. By Friday, March 22, nine out of 14 employees who were advocating for unionization were informed that their jobs had been terminated. 

This move by management raised questions about their motive, especially since the Long Beach Media Guild had not yet been formally recognized. The incident sparked concerns among other employees, who feared retaliation for supporting the union campaign.

The Long Beach Post is the latest newsroom to suffer from mass layoffs. Earlier this year ​​the Los Angeles Times terminated approximately 115 employees, or about 23% of the newsroom, in one of the largest cuts in the paper’s 142-year history. This included a large portion of their Latinx-serving newsroom at De Los, as well as the Washington D.C. team

Facing similar financial struggles, The Long Beach Post cut a total of nine employees between September and November of 2023. 

Despite serving a 44% Latino district, management laid off Laura Anaya-Morga, a bi-lingual reporter who headed the publication's Spanish-language coverage. “That service went away when it was starting to peak in communities like West Long Beach,” said Ruiz, who emphasized that the Spanish language readers of the Long Beach Post lost a valuable news source when Anaya-Morga was let go.  

Since the significant downsizing, the Guild has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board regarding the retaliatory layoffs. A relief fund for their former employees has been created and the guild is requesting that the public not “cross the digital picket line” or engage with any Long Beach Post or Long Beach Business Journal content. 

Additionally, the remaining staff is urging the Board of Directors to reinstate the employees who were recently laid off and are advocating for Evans' removal from her position as CEO. Ruiz said he signed up for a 20% pay reduction to save some of his colleague's jobs. 

“For Melissa Evans to put out a statement saying that she tried everything to prevent this from happening is insulting to the people who are currently without jobs,” says Ruiz, “and for people like me who are willing to make pretty steep sacrifices to get them back on board.”