Photo Credit: LinkedIn
A UMG employee says he was fired for speaking up about abortion rights.
Michael Lopez worked as a production coordinator at Universal Music Enterprises. But last week, Lopez blasted the company for terminating him for allegedly “speaking up in defense of abortion rights,” the note on LinkedIn reads.
“Last Friday, like countless other folks, I was devastated by the news of the Supreme Courts’ attack on abortion rights,” Lopez writes in the LinkedIn post. “Paired with the flood of anti-queer and anti-trans legislation, it’s been hard to process how companies expect us to be productive while our rights are being stripped away.”
Lopez says part of his job was to process reports for upcoming releases and then email those reports to colleagues. Instead of processing those reports, however, he wrote an email that said, “I didn’t do them today.” In the email, Lopez continues: “I’m in mourning due to the attack on people with uteruses in the U.S. Federally guaranteed access to abortion is gone.”
“Vivendi and Universal Music Group must stop donating to anti-abortion, anti-queer, and anti-trans politicans,” Lopez’s email continues. “Politicians like Marsha Blackburn, Ken Buck, Victoria Spartz, etc. Or expect more unproductive days,” the email continues. Lopez was given the day off after the email was sent on Friday. Upon returning to work the following Monday, Lopez says he was greeted with a surprise Zoom video chat with H.R.
“I was being let go for ‘not doing your job, disrupting the day of 275 people, and poor judgement,” Lopez writes on LinkedIn. When asked to comment on the issue, a UMG spokesperson said they could not offer specifics on one person being fired.
“Universal Music Group has a long record of support for women’s issues. As we wrote to our U.S. employees, UMG views reproductive health care as essential,” a UMG spokesperson told Digital Music News. “In the wake of the recent U.S. 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.”