Tuesday, July 5, 2022 – A employee of Universal Music Group claims he was fired for “speaking up” about abortion rights.
Michael Lopez, a production coordinator at Universal Music Enterprises, admitted he refused to work because he was in “mourning” over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
He said he was fired for “speaking up in defense of abortion rights.”
In a lengthy post shared on LinkedIn, Lopez blasted the company as “anti-gay” for terminating a “queer brown person” during Pride Month for “speaking up in defense of abortion rights.”
He wrote: “Last Friday, like countless other folks, I was devastated by the news of the supreme court’s attack on abortion rights.
“Paired with the flood of anti-queer and anti-trans legislation, it’s been hard to process how company’s expect us to be productive while our rights are being stripped away.”
Lopez went on to explain that each Friday “one of my tasks was to process reports for upcoming releases” and then to email his work to 275 people.
But instead of doing the usual process reports, he wrote an email that read: “I didn’t do them today. I’m in mourning due to the attack on people with uteruses in the US. Federally guaranteed access to abortion is gone.”
He continued in the mail: “Vivendi and Universal Music Group must stop donating to anti-abortion, anti-queer and anti-trans politicians. Politicians like Marsha Blackburn, Ken Buck, Victoria Spartz, etc. Or expect more unproductive days.”
He signed off the mail with “Yours in fury, Michael Lopez.”
After sending the email, Lopez said he received several supportive replies from co-workers but was told by a manager to “take the rest of the day off.”
When he returned to work the following Monday, he said he was greeted with “a surprise Zoom video chat with HR.”
“I was being let go for (paraphrasing) ‘Not doing your job, disrupting the day of 275 people and poor judgement’,” Lopez wrote.
A spokesperson for Universal Music Group told The Post: “As a matter of policy, we can’t discuss an individual’s personnel record. We can say that what was posted on social media is inaccurate.”
“UMG has a long record of support for women’s issues,” the spokesperson added.
“As we wrote to our US employees, UMG views reproductive health care as essential.
“In the wake of the recent US Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v Wade, the company has extended its efforts to assure that these important healthcare services remain accessible to employees.
“We also financially support non-profit groups working in this area and offer a match for employee’s contributions to those groups, as well.”
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