As The Los Angeles Times becomes one of the latest newsrooms to undergo layoffs and budget cuts, the paper’s union prepares to fight back on behalf of its members.

In an email sent to staff last week, L.A. Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida announced that 74 editorial positions – about 13 percent of the total newsroom – will be cut.

In response, the LAT NewsGuild announced that union leaders had filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in an open letter to newsroom management on June 8.

Under contract, newsroom management is required to bargain with the Guild over proposed layoffs. Management is also required to offer buyouts to staff, which it has not done so far.

The LAT Guild, representing more than 450 employees at the Los Angeles Times, expressed their “outrage” over the announcement, stating that they were “blindsided by this news.”

“Management did not consult us in advance about other options for cutting costs and saving money, short of layoffs,” LAT Guild said in a statement last week. “We have been bargaining a new contract since September, and this was never hinted at during bargaining.”

“Your handling of this proposed layoff sends a clear message to the newsroom: You don’t care about the contract and you don’t care about us,” the union said in its letter.

None of the individuals on The Times’ masthead – the paper’s most senior editors – were affected by these job losses. Reporters, for the most part, were unaffected.

When LAT Guild members asked why no cuts have been made to the masthead, adding that those were the highest-paid positions in the newsroom, Merida replied, “I don’t want to talk about individual compensation.”

L.A. Times’ spokeswoman Hillary Manning said about 500 positions would remain after the cuts are complete. According to the L.A. Times, positions affected include some editing, audience engagement and audio producing roles.

LAT Guild members felt like they didn’t get a good enough explanation as to why the union was not consulted for the proposed layoffs, why people of color were more impacted and how a digital-first media outlet was turning its back against its digital producers in last week’s emergency meeting.

“There’s just no really good answers,” Merida responded when the Guild asked why the proposed layoffs would disproportionately affect some departments like the copy and photo desks, the audience and audio teams.

“There should be,” the LAT Guild tweeted. “When our livelihoods are on the line, we deserve good answers.”

According to The Objective, a significant number of positions cut were staffed by employees of color. This impact was particularly noticeable in the audio, audience engagement, copy editing and photography teams. Among the affected employees, 19 identify as Latine, 11 identify as Asian American, four identify as Black and five identify as two or more races.

Initially, the Times’ sole two Spanish-speaking photojournalists were among those slated for layoffs. This decision would have resulted in the photo department lacking a proficient Spanish-speaker in a region where the Latino population exceeds 50 percent. But on Thursday evening, following the offer of an unidentified manager to step down voluntarily, one of the Spanish-speaking photographers was reinstated.

The many recent cuts come as layoffs have plagued other outlets, including the New York Times’ The Athletic (which cut 4 percent of its newsroom), Buzzfeed (which eliminated its news division) and NPR (which laid off 10 percent of its workforce).

For more than a dozen non-guild members who received notices they had been terminated, Wednesday, June 7, was their last day. Fifty-six employees covered by the union, however, will remain for up to 30 days as specified in the guild’s collective bargaining agreement. According to Manning, they will also receive compensation equivalent to 60 days’ worth of pay. It’s unclear whether that compensation includes benefits.

Journalism associations like the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) have since joined the LAT Guild in criticizing management’s attempt to terminate employees, many of whom are journalists of color.

“Tough times require tough decisions, but newsroom diversity should not be a casualty, even during cutbacks,” said NAHJ President Yvette Cabrera. “We stand in solidarity with all those who were targeted during these layoffs, and we call on the L.A. Times to stand behind their commitment to raise the newspaper’s standards of diversity and better reflect the communities it serves.”

As of June 8, NAHJ has requested a meeting with L.A. Times leadership to discuss the effects of these deep cuts that significantly reduce “newsroom Latinos.”

The Guild held its most recent bargaining session with Merida and LAT’s Chief Operating Officer, Chris Argentieri on Monday. Matt Pearce, who’s the President of Media Guild of the West, stated that no further details were provided on sustaining the newsroom after the proposed layoffs, except for a promise to share more information later in the week, to the alarm of the bargaining committee.

The Guild’s bargaining committee’s position remains the same, however: “Management needs to offer newsroom-wide buyouts – like they should have before rolling out these ill-considered cuts – to prevent some major damage to our newsroom.”