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Southern Poverty Law Center's layoffs are…

Labor & Employment Southern Poverty Law Center's layoffs are 'no coincidence,' union says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

June 18, 2024, 8:58 am CDT

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The Southern Poverty Law Center has acknowledged an “organizational restructuring” after the SPLC Union said the group laid off more than 60 union members, along with at least 20 supervisors, last week. (Photo from Shutterstock)

The Southern Poverty Law Center has acknowledged an “organizational restructuring” after the SPLC Union said the group laid off more than 60 union members, along with at least 20 supervisors, last week.

The Southern Poverty Law Center didn’t confirm the number of layoffs but said it is consolidating some programs and eliminating others.

“This was a difficult but necessary decision to focus and align our work with our programmatic priorities and goals,” the civil rights group said in a statement provided to news organizations.

Law360, the Associated Press and the Washington Times have coverage.

In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, the union said the Southern Poverty Law Center “gutted its staff by a quarter,” even though it has “nearly a billion dollars in reserves.”

The layoffs dismantled the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice team, its Immigrant Freedom initiative and its Learning for Justice department, according to the statement.

“SPLC’s decision has a catastrophic impact on the organization’s work in support of immigrants seeking justice and its mission to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance human rights through support of educators,” the union said.

Those let go included five union stewards and the union chair, the SPLC Union said.

“Make no mistake—laying off dozens of employees, many of whom were union activists, less than a year before we will bargain our second contract was no coincidence,” the union said.

Employees voted to unionize in 2019, the same year that the group fired one of its co-founders, Morris Dees. The Southern Poverty Law Center said at that time it was bringing in an outside organization to assess its internal climate and workplace practices.

Dees received the ABA Medal, the ABA’s highest honor, from the ABA House of Delegates in August 2012.

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