Posted on 01/25/2024 5:33:49 AM PST by bert
Layoffs ‘disproportionately’ impact people of color, according to the chair of the L.A. Times Guild Unit Council
Caucuses within the Los Angeles Times Guild designed to represent diverse communities within the newsroom will be "decimated" by the liberal paper’s decision to lay off at least 115 staffers this week, according to the Guild.
"If these layoffs are allowed to go through, our caucuses will be decimated. The Latino Caucus will lose 38% of its members. The Black Caucus will lose 33% of members. The AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] and MENASA [Middle East, North Africa and South Asia] caucuses will lose 34% of their combined membership," Brian Contreras, a tech and artificial intelligence reporter, who was one of the impacted staffers, told Fox News Digital.
Contreras is also the chair of the L.A. Times Guild Unit Council, which scolded the paper Wednesday following the "gutting" news that mass layoffs were underway, saying it "did not have to be this way."
"This is in large part because the company refused to offer newsroom-wide voluntary buyouts before launching these layoffs, which could've incentivized more senior staff members -- who are disproportionately White -- to step up and take the place of younger staff members -- who are disproportionately [people of color] and more likely to get laid off," Contreras said.
Roughly 20% of the newsroom is expected to be shown the door. Contreras isn’t certain about the exact racial breakdown of the layoffs, aside from caucuses being severely impacted, but said the Guild is "looking into it."
A second former L.A. Times staffer who was impacted by the layoffs said it’s a possibility that "some diverse people" would have taken a voluntary buyout but feels management’s decision to implement mass layoffs significantly impacted minorities.
"Just look at the list of names of the people who were laid off. I think you’ll find that they were overwhelmingly diverse reporters," they told Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity.
Some L.A. Times employees who have announced they were laid off on social media include Lukas Kwan Peterson, Steven Vargas, Boris Kachka, Chelsea Hylton, Steve Saldivar, Christian Martinez, Jonah Valdez, Kenan Draughorne, Jared Serventez, Jeong Park, Jean Guerrero, Queenie Wong, Christian Orozco and Alejandra Molina.
The Guild has long been fighting for seniority protections, and said the paper agreed that impacted staffers would have less seniority. However, the company is allowed to "skip" laying off a certain number of employees it deems critical, and the next people on the seniority list get laid off instead, a Guild source explained.
"Management had been saying, ‘Well, if you make these sacrifices on the union contract in terms of seniority, we can save the diverse people,’ but if you look at the way the skips have been used, you’re allowed to skip a certain percentage of people in a layoff cluster," the anonymous former staffer said. "If you look at whose been laid off… those skips were not used to save diverse people. The skips led to minorities being laid off."
The paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, called the layoffs "painful," but insisted they were necessary to thrive going forward after significant losses over the last few years.
The decision to lay off employees flies in the face of California Democrats, including Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who urged L.A. Times management to offer voluntary buyouts in place of layoffs in a letter sent to ownership and the union earlier this week.
"We are concerned about reports of potential layoffs facing the LA Times newsroom and the impact this will have on all Angelenos, the availability of essential news and the strength of our democracy at large," Schiff and the other lawmakers wrote.
Reps. Pete Aguilar, Brad Sherman, Jimmy Gomez, Judy Chu, Tony Cardenas, Ted Lieu, Nanette Barragan, Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Robert Garcia also signed the letter that begged the paper to implement voluntary buyouts to no avail.
According to the Guild, the tentative layoff breakdown of impacted staffers is 14 assistant editors, three data and graphics journalists, two department administrators, four designers, 22 feature columnists/reporters, 19 news columnists/reporters, six sports columnists/reporters, six audience engagement multiplatform editors, nine photographers or photo editors, one recipe tester and eight video journalists.
Contreras said the cuts will dramatically hurt the quality of the Los Angeles paper.
"They are gutting our Washington bureau in an election year, and gutting new initiatives including our Latino-centric De Los vertical and our social media-savvy 404 team, which previously seemed like they could help the paper chart a path toward new readers and relevance," Contreras said, adding that "management still has the chance to accept any buyouts that staff who weren't laid off ask for."
The Times has notified staffers that "employees not identified for layoffs shall be offered the opportunity to volunteer for layoff consistent with past practice and CBA" and if the paper accepts a volunteer for buyout, "the volunteer will receive enhanced severance and will replace the senior most person on the layoff list consistent with past practice and CBA."
Contreras said it’s not clear what the next step for the embattled paper is.
"Ownership has not articulated a clear vision for where the paper is headed or how these cuts are anything other than short-term savings at the expense of the paper's long-term vitality and relevance to readers. That should be concerning not just to our Guild, but to anyone who thinks readers in Southern California -- and beyond -- deserve robust and well-resourced accountability journalism," Contreras said.
Prior to the headcount reduction, over 350 members of the Guild staged a one-day walkout last week following an announcement that the paper planned to lay off many of its journalists.
The one-day strike was the Times’ first "union-organized work stoppage in the paper’s 142-year history," according to entertainment reporter Meg James, who also noted that anxiety was "widespread" in the newsroom.
"The proposed layoffs will mark the third round of cuts since June, when more than 70 positions, or about 13% of the newsroom, were trimmed," James wrote.
The anonymous former Times staffer agreed that employees have been on tilt for over a week.
"Everyone was kind of just waiting around, wondering if their number was up," they told Fox News Digital.
The Los Angeles Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
So firing Whiteys is OK?
Think of all the code they could be learning with the time they are spending complaining.
They should vote harder for democrats.
DIE DEI!
Pruning the deadwood. Oops, they are mostly young skulls full of mush.
Layoffs ‘disproportionately’ impact people of color, according to the chair of the L.A. Times Guild Unit Council >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thats because the LA Times and many, many others made a YUGE mistake.
They all hiored staff and managers based on the color of their skin rather than the degree of their ability and expertise.
POur entire military is manifest with this rot from the top down, witness Sec Def Austin.
This is the YUGE cost of accepting communist theory and dialectic approaches to , traditionally based on class, but now based on race, DEI, CRT, and “Equity” replacing justice.
Businesses that go full tilt DEI are learning that they cannot compete or make a profit. and so far many do not get it, but when they do, the Unions do not “get it.” Look At Coca Cola of Atlanta, Budweiser -Anhauser Bush.....
The second tier hit on busines is the battle with the Socialists and Marxist run Unions who are now playing the race card.........damn right its disproportional lay offs.........understandably so , because the hires were disp[roportional on the “qualification/merit/expertise scale.
Businesses are forced to lay off the racial dead wood they have hired based on skin color. If they want to hire based on skin color, they are awakening to the fact that they have to hire black folks who also have a high level of qualification for their jobs.
To surviuve in the world of business,it is becomeing evident that excellence in qualifucation and work ethic is a necessity.
Look at Trump’s businesses in New YOrk, he has managed to hire rcial minorities based on merit and excellence. It is a do-able line of management.
BUt at the LA Slimes , they want to do corporate hiring welfare.So non they will be no more, pffffftttt! Gone.
America will not miss them one little bit either.
Excellent pull! I’d forgotten all about that hatred toward Jews he displayed when he was t reading off a script or measuring his words in a crafted interview.
Uh uh uh uh uh
Eventually the AI will do that, too.
Is there a white or American caucus in the L.A. Times Guild Unit Council?
“If these layoffs are allowed to go through, our caucuses will be decimated. The Latino Caucus will lose 38% of its members. The Black Caucus will lose 33% of members. The AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] and MENASA [Middle East, North Africa and South Asia] caucuses will lose 34% of their combined membership,” Brian Contreras, a tech and artificial intelligence reporter, who was one of the impacted staffers, told Fox News Digital.
Just look at the list of names of the people who were laid off. I think you’ll find that they were overwhelmingly diverse reporters,” they told Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity.
“Ownership has not articulated a clear vision for where the paper is headed
That is a good old fashioned plan.
You know, if they’d hired more straight white boys, they could’ve fired more straight white boys…
The white staff is used for target practice during coffee breaks.
Paper owners noticed that it wasn’t the minorities who were still buying the paper, and the actual customers didn’t care about “diversity”.
This entire long winded article about what skin colors stay and what skin colors get laid off is total bullshit and illustrates once again what’s wrong in this country.
People should be getting laid off based upon merit alone. Period.
Oh freakin’ well. When you only print puke, expect decent people to rebel against the crap you print. Our local crap, puke newspaper here in NE Alabama is the Anniston Star. It has been called the Anniston RED Star for decades. The only way it stays in business is it is owned by the NY Slimes!!! of all people. They actually send people out who come to your home and make these wild offers of three months free if you will take the scription. I told the guy to tell his commie leaders down there to dump the liberal slant and move right, where 90% of the people around here are on!! This county votes for the republican party over the dims. I only get my news from on line conservative outlets. I watch Newsmax TV on my DirecTV every day, several times a day. I know there is a faction here that hates Newsmax, however, I have seen very little in their live programming that I can yell foul at. Hey are solid for Trump and want Nikkie to go home, so everyone can get behind our President!! So, watch them on the tube if you can get them or so to the website like I have also done and signup for their Newsmax Plus site. It is the same a TV but with as much more as they can pack in. At least we have one conservative voice. We should back it while we have it so that we do not lose it.
They have reached their goal....completely diverse and uniformly financially equal. Namely, jobless...
I'd be fine if they just laid off the smug, white liberal reporters. Everything the paper puts out is trash so it really doesn't matter who they lay off.
The problem of wokeness is that it injects the parasites, who then kill the host. And the country loses a business.
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