Workers fought to save jobs at a national trans rights group. Then came a one-sentence layoff email

Advocates for Trans Equality, a national transgender rights group, says 12 employees departed Wednesday after a months-long labor dispute over a multimillion-dollar deficit, alternatives to layoffs, and whether management did enough to protect workers’ jobs.

“Yesterday was an extremely difficult day at Advocates for Trans Equality,” Maxwell Scales, the organization’s chief operations and equity officer, told The Advocate in an email Thursday. “Yesterday, we said goodbye to 12 people, including staff at every level of the organization — from the bargaining unit to executive leadership.”

A4TE said its board approved a plan to eliminate a $2.4 million deficit and reach a balanced budget in 2027 after what Scales described as significant funding losses from corporations and longtime donors. Personnel costs account for 86 percent of the organization’s annual budget, Scales said.

Management says it cut discretionary non-personnel spending, combined positions, delayed hiring, and ultimately reduced pay for managers and executives in addition to cutting staff.

Related: Layoff threat ignites labor fight at major transgender rights group

The union says management had other options

The Union for Trans Liberation, which represents A4TE workers through UAW Local 2325, says management still had other options. In the final days before the departures, the union said it was losing nearly half its membership and accused leadership of failing to make its contractually required “best efforts” to avoid layoffs. It said it planned to file a grievance and was prepared to pursue unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

A4TE disputes that it violated the agreement.

“Management followed the process, as outlined in the collective bargaining agreement,” Scales said. “The contract that union and management successfully negotiated also lays out a process for when we disagree.”

The contract requires A4TE, when economic retrenchment becomes necessary, to work closely with the union, develop a plan to avoid layoffs, discuss alternatives, provide relevant financial information, and make “best efforts” to preserve jobs. It allows the union to propose alternative savings but leaves final decision-making authority with management if the sides cannot agree by the end of the notice period.

The union proposed a long list of alternatives.

An August 26 bargaining document reviewed by The Advocate shows workers sought temporary salary reductions for employees earning more than $135,000, restrictions on executive hiring, reductions in travel and consulting, and consolidation of some senior management positions.

At the time, management rejected the executive hiring freeze and wrote that it was “not considering salary reductions.” In its statement Thursday, however, A4TE said the measures it ultimately adopted included pay cuts for managers and leadership.

Scales said 10 weeks of negotiations also preserved two union jobs and produced additional non-personnel savings.

Related: As Massachusetts hospitals bow to Trump, these organizers are fighting to protect trans futures

A fight over sick time intensified tensions

The dispute became especially tense as the layoff date approached.

The union said management warned employees that a planned use of sick and healing time on September 23 and 24 could constitute an illegal work stoppage and result in discipline, potentially including discharge. The CBA prohibits strikes, slowdowns, and work stoppages during the agreement’s term.

A4TE did not address whether it issued the warning or why it treated the planned action as a work stoppage. Scales said, however, that “no staff person who has followed the process to access sick time has been asked to work, had that time denied, nor has been disciplined for accessing said time.”

A departing staffer raises questions about who was affected

Ash Lazarus Orr, a transgender former employee who worked in press relations at A4TE for nearly four years and spoke with The Advocate, said he saw another troubling pattern among workers affected by the reductions.

“When I look at who is being pushed out, who is losing their positions, I see people who have been vocal about workplace conditions, people who have been involved in union activity, and people who have raised ongoing concerns about our leadership and management,” Orr said.

A4TE said Orr initiated a voluntary separation from the organization.

“I can’t tell you what’s happening behind closed doors or what’s in leadership’s head,” Orr said, adding that the pattern raised questions about whether workers who challenged leadership were disproportionately affected.

Laid-off employees received a two-sentence termination email

For laid-off workers, their employment ended with a strikingly brief email.

The Advocate reviewed a copy of the message that A4TE Chief Financial Officer Jake McClain sent to employees whose positions were being eliminated. Its subject line read, “Sept 30th - Involuntary Layoff Date.”

“Dear Employee, September 30th, 2026 will be your last day of employment at A4TEEF,” the email said.

Orr described the message, which he noted misspelled the company’s name, as especially painful after years of work at the organization.

“We received an email from our chief financial officer. It was a very brief statement just saying, ‘This is your last day,’ and that was it,” Orr told The Advocate. He said other communications had addressed severance and related documents, but McClain’s message was the final notification confirming the end of employment.

Orr called the note “callous,” saying some affected employees had worked at A4TE or its predecessor organizations for years.

Orr alleges a broader disconnect between A4TE’s mission and workplace

Orr also alleged that he had been pressured to work while on leave, worked from a hospital bed while being asked to prove he was ill, and felt compelled to disclose an ectopic pregnancy to a supervisor while seeking time off for a medical emergency.

“Those values have to apply to us too as A4TE workers,” Orr said. “I should not have been working from a hospital bed.”

Orr said the experience had changed how he viewed the organization, even as he continued to believe deeply in the work itself. He praised the attorneys, policy staff, and organizers who remained at A4TE, but said an organization advocating for transgender people’s dignity, healthcare, economic security, and freedom from discrimination had to apply those principles to its own workforce.

“I don’t think the mission itself is wrong,” Orr said. “I do believe in our mission as strongly as ever.” But he added that there was “an enormous disconnect between the values A4TE asks the rest of the world to uphold versus the experiences some of us have while working inside this organization.”

Orr added, “I believe in its mission, and I still believe in the mission. I just no longer believe that A4TE is that organization to carry that mission through.”

A4TE declined to discuss individual personnel matters.

“We take allegations of transphobia or any harm to employees seriously,” Scales said.

Orr also said he understood that A4TE was eliminating its dedicated press relations position and would rely more heavily on social media and artificial intelligence for some communications work. A4TE did not address the AI claim but said remaining staff would continue its relationships with journalists.

“This sucks for everyone — for the folks who were laid off, for our bargaining unit members who remain, for the managers who are often caught in the middle, and for our community,” Scales said. “However, this is no time to stop fighting for trans lives.”