WALNUT CREEK -- More than two dozen newspaper workers with the Contra Costa Times were given their walking papers Friday, which come on the heels of a vote by employees to form a union.

A total of 29 employees were laid-off by the Bay Area Newspaper Group-East Bay that operates 11 daily papers including the Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune.

The company says the lay-offs are a business decision, but some workers told KTVU they suspect they were let go because of their union organizing activities.

"We believe it was a retaliatory firing for championing of the guild, the newspaper guild," laid-off reporter Rebecca Rosen Lum told KTVU.

The company's attorney disagrees, saying the layoffs were purely a financial decision.

"The decisions were based upon areas of the newspapers that the company felt they needed to simply cut because of the severe economic problems that they were facing and had nothing to do whatsoever with union activities," said Marshall Anstandig with the Bay Area Newspaper Group-East Bay.

Sara Steffens has been a reporter with the Contra Costa Times for almost a decade, where she covered poverty and social services issues. She received her layoff notice on July 2nd, less than three weeks after reporters voted to join the union.

Steffens also was recently elected to be the leader of the guild in the East Bay.

"It's hard not to feel that they just wanted me out of that newsroom," Steffens told KTVU. "I've been a physical face of organizing the union and campaign because we're about to begin bargaining for our first contract."

Steffens concedes there was a need to reduce the size of the newspaper's staff, but she says their questions are all about the way people on the list were selected.

The paper's management maintains that it has many union supporters on staff, so there's bound to be a number of union supporters on the layoff list.

Friday's layoffs come as the newspaper industry as a whole continues to suffer during these hard economic times.

"It's horrible and nobody's happy about it," Anstanding said. "It's just the way things are going."

Both Rosen Lum and Steffens say they plan to challenge their layoffs through the union.