Former employees of the SPLC’s education arm, Learning for Justice, published an open letter Tuesday outlining their experiences in the lead-up to the layoffs. They claimed the SPLC shifted the direction of their department, gave them more duties without more pay and without hiring more staff, and then abruptly fired most of them in June.

“We know it is no coincidence that the layoffs, which targeted mostly union members and union leadership, follow employee surveys that show declining confidence in SPLC management over the past couple of years,” the former employees wrote. “It’s also no coincidence that these layoffs happened less than a year before our union negotiates a new collective bargaining agreement.”

“From a social justice organization that refused to voluntarily recognize our union at its inception, it is classic union-busting behavior,” they added.