• by Sara Guaglione , January 19, 2018

Parent company Tronc is launching an investigation into the behavior of Ross Levinsohn, publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times, as its newsroom voted today to unionize.

The final vote count to unionize the Los Angeles Times was 248 in favor, 44 against.

A report from NPR published Thursday reviewed court documents and financial filings and interviewed 26 of Levinsohn’s former colleagues, revealing the CEO was a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits.

Numerous female colleagues have spoken out about his misbehavior in professional settings spanning two decades.

The two lawsuits against Levinsohn were filed by female colleagues at Alta Vista in 2001 and at News Corp. in 2006, NPR reported. Tronc said it was made aware of the allegations this week and launched an investigation, “so that we have a better understanding of what's occurred.”

“At Tronc, we expect all employees to act in a way that supports a culture of diversity and inclusion,” the media company stated. “We will take appropriate action to address any behavior that falls short of these expectations.”

It is unclear if Levinsohn will be placed on leave or suspended during the investigation. Levinsohn is accused of rating employees by hotness, kissing an employee at a business dinner while married and using homophobic slurs at a fashion event. Nearly every employee interviewed by NPR refused to have their names made public.

Tronc hired Levinsohn to run the LA Times in August, after it fired top executives at the newspaper. Levinsohn previously held high-ranking roles at Guggenheim Digital Media, CBS, the search engine Alta Vista, Yahoo and News Corp.

Levinsohn has referred to the allegations regarding his behavior as “lies,” and reportedly called NPR CEO Jarl Mohn on Wednesday and threatened to seek legal counsel. The Los Angeles Times union organizing committee published a memo Thursday, titled “Not fit to lead the Los Angeles Times.”