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Ed Padgett, a Los Angeles Times employee for 39 years, has been in trouble with the bosses before for his blog posts. This time, he says today, Human Resources called from out of nowhere to tell him he had been fired. "I had no clue I was under investigation, so it came as a shock to learn I was being investigated by human resources and terminated upon the completion of the so-called investigation," he posts. "I’m not at liberty to share why I was terminated or what my actions in response will be at this time; so stay tuned as this unfolds." His firing apparently took effect Dec. 12. On that day Padgett had posted about the pressroom workers ratifying a new union contract. His last post before that was about an impasse in labor negotiations. In October he had posted about rumors of a pay wall coming to the Times website.
Last year, Padgett was suspended ostensibly for writing about pressroom problems, then reinstated. The Times' last printing plant is located on Olympic Boulevard near the 10 Freeway south of Downtown. Padgett survived the closure of major pressrooms at Times facilities in Orange County and the San Fernando Valley, and the former main pressroom in the Times headquarters on 1st Street. He was involved when the pressroom workers voted in 2007 to become the LAT's first union.