News 12 employees are standing behind a lawsuit the Dolan family has filed against its current owners, Alice USA.
The suit, which names media mogul and former News 12 president Pat Dolan as the plaintiff, alleges that Alice USA went against sales agreement terms which put a cap on staff layoffs in order to protect News 12’s legacy.
The suit states Altice laid off 70 people in 2017. It also states the company plans to lay off dozens more News 12 employees starting tomorrow, including longtime News 12 Long Island anchor Colleen McVey, who is also named as a plaintiff on the lawsuit, and an additional 10 percent of News 12 staff in each successive year.
The next round of layoffs was supposed to happen in August, but don’t appear to have occurred yet.
In 2016, the Dolan family sold Cablevision, along with its News 12 Networks, for $17.7 billion.
Altice has gone on the record saying it remains committed to offering meaningful news coverage. The Dolan family said it decided to file the suit “to protect its employees” and because “a newsroom is more than its balance sheet.”
You can read the full lawsuit here.