Remezcla CEO Andrew Herrera finally breaks his silence about its toxic workplace
It has been weeks since Jezebel released an article about Remezcla and their toxic workplace. Up until July 7, there was no response to the allegations.
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On June 25, Jezebel put out an expose on the Latinx digital news site Remezcla. Two weeks later, there was still no word from the CEO, implicated most in the article.
This morning, a public apology and ‘commitment’ from the CEO was released.
It has been nearly 2 weeks since the @REMEZCLA exposé detailing 10+ years of abuse endured by female employees. The CEO has remained silent. There has been no official response. We’re asking for direct action to eradicate toxic leadership. It’s time to #CleanUpRemezcla pic.twitter.com/kj5sU7R853
— BRI (@BrianaMMendez) July 7, 2020
On July 5, a change.org petition was published on Twitter calling for direct action from Remezcla.
In the petition called #CleanupRemezcla, it added that the unacceptable behavior from CEO Andrew Herrera was not the only one women employees endured. The petition said the pattern was also enabled and carried out by former music editor and current executive director Eduardo Cepeda.
The petition called for the resignation or removal of the CEO and the executive editor. They are also asking for the financial investors to call on better qualified leadership in the newsroom as well as an ethical executive editor.
In addition to these requests, they asked for former employees to be released from their NDA’s and separation agreements.
The petition has now garnered over 900 signatures.
On July 7, the top banner on Remezcla’s web page read: “An Apology and commitment from our CEO.”
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Despite the long wait, Herrera finally decided to address the situation. He expressed his deepest apologies to the women he affected and acknowledged that Remezcla was founded on the backs of two women.
He explained that since the article exposing his workplace was published he has “taken a very hard look in the mirror.”
In the statement he also laid out immediate changes.
The executive editor, Eduardo Cepeda, will be stepping down and leaving the company, and Herrera committed to diversifying his leadership team, changing the structure of the office and hiring an HR team.
Their content will now be available in both English and Spanish, the company will be setting up a ‘fund for journalism for social issues’ to produce content aimed at producing content around that topic.
However, the former employees do not feel this is nothing more than a half-assed apology from the abuser himself.
How can an abuser fix the problem he created? This non-apology is filled with empty words. This isn’t a moment of reckoning for Herrera. He was confronted about his abuse through Glassdoor reviews in 2017. This letter is triggering + gaslighting victims. https://t.co/7sm6HONwtg
— BRI (@BrianaMMendez) July 8, 2020
How can a company endure change from the person who caused all the pain?
2 weeks late, full of empty words and non-apologies, and not even shared on socials what a fucking joke.
— Olivia Aguiñiga (@whitechi) July 8, 2020
Remezcla employees, victims, and fans deserve better.#CleanUpRemezcla https://t.co/qBM90w1vos
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