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In the midst of an economic downturn and wide-ranging, McCarthyist political attacks on Black history and anything presumably related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) or critical race theory, union-busting at PushBlack now threatens workers’ ability to fight for Black liberation at a time when this work is most needed. 

For millions of Black Americans, the Black-led progressive and social justice-centered nonprofit media organization PushBlack is a digital lifeline: a source of news, civic information, and affirming content in a publishing landscape that often marginalizes our stories. Our celebrated get-out-the-vote campaigns are a testament to our public power. 

But today, that power is being squandered. 

The very organization built to champion Black liberation and collective care is now waging a war against its own staff, exposing a staggering hypocrisy between its external mission and internal cruelty.

In a moment of crisis earlier this year, we formed PushBlack Workers United, coinciding with the organization’s 10th anniversary. PushBlack’s CEO at the time, Julian Walker, planned to wipe out at least 50% of our already lean workforce after subjecting us to years of his breathtakingly incompetent leadership. Walker’s near-decadelong executive tenure was marked by unilateral decision-making, the silencing of dissent (for example, muting staff on Zoom calls as we were notified of layoffs), and the routine overburdening of Black women and LGBTQIA+ employees. 

One clear example of his ineptitude came in March when Walker suggested that staff raise $6.5 million in just 30 days to keep their jobs. The proposal was ridiculous, emerging only after a staff rebellion revealed his stunning negligence. PushBlack quickly went from years of financial runway to only months. Today, after the departure of over a dozen staff members, we’re only afloat because of our subscribers. But in this economic climate, donations alone can’t sustain us. 

As employees who form the backbone of PushBlack, providing the research, writing, design, and fundraising that keep the organization afloat, we formed our union under these conditions. Our collective action forced Walker’s resignation in June. However, our organizing efforts did not cure the disease of mismanagement that infects PushBlack’s leadership.

We’d hoped for a new chapter. Instead, we are living a grim sequel.

One month into our new CEO Uzo Ometu’s tenure, management announced another rushed round of layoffs, targeting six staff members before the holidays and in the middle of a critical donation campaign. The process has been a masterclass in bad faith. 

On Dec. 8, we were given a bare-bones “severance and transition framework” that included one week’s pay per year of service. This was an insult to the dedicated professionals who’ve built this organization, including some who have been with PushBlack for five years. We also had a mere five business days to “bargain” over the agreement before it’s implemented. This is not bargaining. It is a diktat designed to stifle resistance and create chaos.

This is union-busting, plain and simple. Leadership’s latest actions follow a broader pattern that first appeared when the organization recognized our union in April: an absentee board of directors failing its fiduciary duty, the sudden resignation of key leaders, and a deliberate stalling at the bargaining table to deny us a first contract. The goal is clear: to demoralize, deplete, and dismantle the collective voice of PushBlack’s workers.

(In a statement to Prism, Ometu said leadership would not comment on internal personnel matters, but the CEO acknowledged the recent reduction in force, which he characterized as “a broader effort to stabilize the organization and align resources with current operational realities.” 

“These decisions were not made lightly, and we are grateful for the contributions of the staff members impacted,” Ometu said. “PushBlack recognizes and respects the rights of its employees to organize and bargain collectively. We have engaged in good-faith discussions with union representatives and remain committed to complying with all applicable labor laws. We categorically reject any characterization of these actions as union busting.”)

The implications of today’s layoffs are devastating, and they extend far beyond our staff. Under the brazenly fascist, racist, and xenophobic Trump administration, Black-led institutions are more vital than ever. Yet PushBlack’s leadership is choosing to weaken ours from within. They are willing to gut the teams that drive revenue and engagement during their own fundraising drive, jeopardizing the organization’s financial future and the trusted service it provides to readers across geographical, racial, generational, and diasporic lines. 

This is a failure of morality and a failure of strategy. It is also a profound betrayal of the Black intersectional, feminist principles of community, care, and collective power that should guide a supposed liberation-minded organization.

We already knew this year’s holiday cheer would be sullied by the grief shared by our workers and readership alike. Reproductive violence. Police killings. ICE raids. Neo-Nazi rallies. Tyrannical censorship. Environmental racism. The skyrocketing costs of housing, food, and other everyday necessities. Black femicide. The deaths of our beloved freedom fighters. In the face of this spectrum of anti-Black horrors, we must now also fight for our very livelihoods. 

This is why we have chosen to make our demands public.  

As PushBlack publicly asked the community for donations while privately planning to lay off the workers behind the organization, we wanted management to halt the layoffs and negotiate alternatives. But on Dec. 15, PushBlack laid off six workers, three of whom were union members and two whose union eligibility PushBlack contested. 

We still demand a sustainable path forward that preserves our jobs and organizational mission, and this requires engaging in good-faith bargaining with our union. Our board must also fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities by leading a legitimate restructuring that values worker expertise, or making way for leadership who will.   

We know the broader cultural and political landscape we are navigating. We see today’s headlines. “What Do We Lose When Black Women in Journalism Disappear? Everything.” “Has the Media Reached the End of Its DEI Era?” PushBlack itself has published numerous stories on the suppression of Black voices, including one about former Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah. 

Funding is low, and censorship is high. According to the Pew Research Center, Black Americans are skeptical of news media and its engagement with our communities. Just 4% of media in the U.S. is Black-owned. As of 2020, there were fewer than 300 Black media outlets. We, the workers of PushBlack, refuse to collapse in the face of white supremacy when our audience needs us most. Our job is to shift thought, policy, and action with the kind of media intended to collectively liberate, not surrender to an ongoing war on this country’s most marginalized. 

In these times, media unionization is vital, as the industry hemorrhages thousands of journalists with layoffs. Since 2016, about 8,000 media workers have unionized with the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America, of which we are also members. Clearly, ours is not the only organization with strong external missions and a facade of progressive worker respect. 

We are also clearly not alone in our struggle. As workers deeply invested in our audience and our mission, our working conditions at PushBlack are a devastating predicament to confront. This is why we must say to our donors, partners, and community members in no uncertain terms: The PushBlack you support is being hollowed out. The values you champion are being violated behind closed doors. As workers, we are fighting to save PushBlack from its own leadership and to realign the organization’s internal practices with its public promise.

If you, too, believe that the future of Black media—and the livelihoods of Black workers who sustain it—are precious and deserving of protection, we ask that you stand with us. 

Editorial Team:
Tina Vasquez, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor