The question caught Lauren Reed off guard.
“What do you have in common with a PlayStation and Game Boy?”
Seana Murphy, executive director of the Martin Luther King Community Center, asked the question during a staff meeting in September 2025. Reed, 37, was an intern.
It was less than a month since Murphy took over the 53-year-old nonprofit.
She answered the question herself.
“They’re games,” Reed and other employees remember Murphy saying. “And I don’t play games.”
The comment was one of the first examples of what became a culture of fear under their new boss, according to five former workers who spoke to Mirror Indy. Some conduct even led them to ask the federal government to investigate potential labor law violations.
“The whole thing just felt very intimidating,” Reed said of the staff meeting.
In a brief phone interview with Mirror Indy, Murphy said the comment was meant to be a joke. But workers said they didn’t take it that way, in part because she was so new to the position.
Murphy was hired in August 2025 to lead the center, which serves residents of Crown Hill, Butler-Tarkington and other surrounding neighborhoods.
It’s been at the current location — between Meridian and Illinois streets by Tarkington Park — since 1997.
A month before Murphy’s arrival, workers there unionized with United Auto Workers Local 933 and were about to start negotiating their first contract. Murphy, employees said, used the same August staff meeting to tell workers they can still be fired even if they’re unionized.
Typically, unionized workers negotiate a discipline process as part of a collective bargaining agreement with their employer. Non-unionized workers are considered “at-will” employees, meaning they can be fired for almost any reason.
The center’s workers ratified a two-year contract in January. Among the wins: two paid mental health days per year.
But the former employees said the workplace changed drastically under Murphy.
That includes less transparency. Board meetings, for example, are now private. A staff page on the center’s website that used to include a full roster of employees now only lists two people: the executive director and deputy director.
An outreach center closed in September. Workers said the decision was abrupt for both them and the community.
Most recently, eight employees were laid off in April.
In an emailed response to questions about the former employees’ concerns, Murphy said workers were laid off “in accordance with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement” and received a severance package.
For Jalen Sultzer, one of the laid off workers, the culture at the MLK Center was “suffocating” by that point.
“The joy and appreciation for serving your community was kind of taken away,” said Sultzer, 26, who worked as an academic wellness coach.
He, like most others, was told of his layoff by email.
Sultzer said he tried talking to Murphy, but she told him to go to a union representative instead.
‘The most obvious union busting maneuver’
When workers began to organize in early 2025, they said there was support from the previous executive director, Allison Luthe. She voluntarily recognized the union.
“A union was just common sense to me,” she told Mirror Indy in September.
But Luthe left at the end of June 2025 after 10 years leading the nonprofit.
Shortly after Murphy was hired, the United Auto Workers union filed allegations against the MLK Center in October with the National Labor Relations Board, which protects the rights of workers in the private sector.
The allegations include:
- Firing an employee in retaliation for protected union activities.
- Closing an outreach center, which was supposed to be part of contract negotiations.
- Excluding union representatives from the property.
The fired worker, Mat Davis, is a union organizer. He moved his labor organization, Common Ground, into the MLK Center in early 2025 and worked in the outreach center. With Luthe’s support, he encouraged staff to unionize and became a lead organizer by working with the UAW.
But Murphy fired Davis, 35, in September, shortly before contract negotiations began. Common Ground was also kicked out of the center.
“This is the most obvious union busting maneuver I’ve ever seen in my life,” he told Mirror Indy.
Murphy did not answer Mirror Indy’s questions about Davis being fired.
Murphy also did not answer Mirror Indy’s question about whether she has been contacted by the labor relations board.
“The MLK Center Board has full confidence in the Executive Director and remains committed to being an anchor institution that partners with neighbors and stakeholders to provide the support needed to ensure long term sustainability and success,” an emailed statement from Murphy reads.
The case remains open as of June 24. A regional director with the labor board could choose to issue a complaint against the MLK Center or dismiss the case following an investigation.
If there is a complaint, the case would go to an administrative law judge. The union and MLK Center could settle the case outside of court, or the judge could make a ruling.
‘Folks are feeling disposable’
R’Quiya Ruffin isn’t sure what’s next. She was part of the layoffs after working at the center for five years. She was trying to get approved for unemployment insurance.
Before being laid off, Ruffin, 27, was a bargainer for the union.
She said the workplace became more tense under Murphy.
“No purpose,” Ruffin said, “no detail.”
Another laid off worker, Katherine Shr, said it’s an unfortunate irony that employees feel disrespected at a community center named in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Shr, 28, worked at the center for two years doing nonviolence education.
“Folks are feeling disposable,” they said.
For Reed, the former intern, things got so bad that she ended her internship early.
By the time she left, Reed said she’d been relegated to desk duty. She said Murphy told her she wasn’t allowed to walk around the building or talk to people.
Murphy didn’t answer questions about Reed.
“Seana made my days completely uncomfortable,” Reed said.
Reed has since moved to northwest Indiana and is still pursuing a social work degree.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Sign up for our free newsletters.
Mirror Indy reporter Tyler Fenwick covers housing and labor. Contact him at 317-766-1406 or tyler.fenwick@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @ty_fenwick and Bluesky @tyfenwick.bsky.social.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
