KPFA's Current Contract
management tried to terminate it and substitute "the contract from hell."



B-FM, PACIFICA FOUNDATION & UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO AND MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA

Agreement entered into as of April 1st 1991, between Pacifica Foundation, its successors and assigns, hereinafter called"Employer", and said Foundation owning and operating radio station KPFA-FM and KPFB-FM in Berkeley, California, hereinafter called " Station", and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, and its affiliate, UE Local 1412, hereinafter called the "Local" or "UE".

SECTION 1. RECOGNITION:

The Employer recognizes the UE as the sole exclusive bargaining agent for all paid and unpaid, full-time or part-time programming, technical, and clerical workers, excluding only the Manager, Assistant Manager, Secretary to the Manager, Program Director, Chief Engineer and Bookkeeper, for the purposes of collectively bargaining in respect to wages, hours of employment and all other conditions of employment.

SECTION 2. MANAGEMENT RIGHTS:

The Union recognizes that subject to the express provisions of this Agreement and of applicable State and Federal law and the Rules and Regulations of the Federal Communications Commission, the supervision, management and control of KPFA and KPFB radio, its operations and business are the exclusive functions and rights of the Pacifica Foundation.

SECTION 3. UNION MEMBERSHIP:

It shall be a condition of employment that all employees of the Employer covered by this Agreement who are members of the Union in good stanployer shall deduct from the first pay of each month dues and promptly remit same to UE Local 1412 for those employees in the bargaining unit whose written and signed authorizations (on the following form) are receiv ed by the Employer. Dues deduction authorization form:

SECTION 5. DEFINITION OF UNPAID STAFF:

The definition of Unpaid staff at KPFA is twofold, involving the description of the selection process and the clarification and definition of unpaid positions, as set forth below.

A. Description of the Selection Process:
B. Definition and Clarification of Unpaid Staff:

SECTION 6. GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE:

Any claim, difference, dispute, or grievance arising between the parties to this contract shall be taken up promptly in the following manner:

STEP 1: Verbally between the Station Steward(s) and the KPFA General Manager. The aggrieved worker(s) shall be present unless circumstances prevent their participation. If the matter is not satisfactory settled within 10 days or within the extended peri od of time mutually agreed upon and written, it shall be referred to Step 2.

STEP 2: The grievance shall be submitted in writing, by a designated Union Committee or a Union-designated representative to the Employer. Within 10 days, the Employer shall submit a written answer to the grievance. The Union-designated Grievance Com mittee and Employer representative shall meet within 10 days of the time said answer is submitted by the Employer. Special meetings at Step 2 on a matter deemed to be of great importance or urgency by the Union Committee shall be held within 1 day after a request by the Union.

SECTION 7. NONDISCRIMINATION:

Neither Employer or the Union shall engage in nor tolerate discrimination with regard to race, religion, creed, age, physical disablilty, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, Union activities or political beliefs. Employer and Union will make every effort to bring the ethnic and gender composition of the Paid and Unpaid Staff as closely as possible in line with the ethnic and sexual composition of the signal area of KPFA-FM and KPFB-FM. Special care shall be taken to train and promote those who, by reason of race, sex or sexual orientation have experienced discrimination in the past. Employer will make sure that all Employer-sponsored events are wheelchair accessible.

SECTION 8. NO STRIKE BREAKING:

No worker shall be required to cross a legitimate picket line as defined by UE Local 1412 or be assigned, transferred or required to go to any radio station, transmitter, studio or property owned while a strike is in progress, or to originate, duplicate, or transmit by any means, a program or programs especially for such a station. No worker will be required to broadcast or process in any way any program or program material produced at any facility while a strike is in progress at that facility. The pr ovisions of this section will be enforceable only to the extent that they are compatible with existing law.

Employer will be given 24 hours notice of an impending strike. Employer will also be notified of application for strike sanction.

SECTION 9. DEFINITION OF TERMS AND HIRING:

A. Definition of Terms:

C. Transfers:

SECTION 10. PROBATION:

All new employees shall be on probation for the first 6 months of their employment. All benefits due the new employee will commence after 3 months. At any time during the probation period the Employer may terminate her/him without cause.

SECTION 11. WORK WEEK:

The work week of a full time employee will be 40 hours in a 7-day period, with part-time employees working proportionate times. Each employee is entitled to 2 consecutive days off within each 7-day period.

SECTION 12. PAY RATE COMPUTATION:

Hourly wages for all employees shall be computed at the full-time rate of pay with seniority divided by the number of hours in the month (173) when it is necessary to make an hourly computation of wage rates. No changes in pay schedule shall be made wi thout consulting the Union.

SECTION 13. LAYOFFS:

The Employer shall notify the Union and affected employees in writing of economic layoffs at least 30 days before layoffs take place. The Employer agrees to actively explore with the Union all economic alternatives to the proposed layoffs. If after full exploration of the alternatives the Employer determines to exercise economic layoffs, the Employer will first observe Steward and Officer seniority preferences and will then use affirmative action and seniority criteria in determining staff layoffs.

If the Employer determines that economic layoffs are unavoidable and proposes to the Union that pay reductions be implemented to deal with financial problems and if employees agree to such a proposal, the Employer shall reduce station management salaries at the same percentage as Union staff salaries. Management salaries shall not increase until the conditions of economic layoff are no longer in effect.

If the Union decides to grieve any layoffs, it shall do so by filing a written grievance within 5 working days after the effective date of the layoffs. Any such grievance shall be initiated at Step 2 of the grievance procedure. Employer shall give individuals 30 days notice of layoffs or in lieu of such notice, 30 days pay.

An employee who is laid off may choose to "bump" to another job in her/his work area, provided that seniority and affirmative guidelines are applied.

SECTION 14. RECALL:

SECTION 15. DISCHARGE:

SECTION 16. SENIORITY:

Seniority shall be measured by the total length of employment by the Employer. When an employee has had a prior paid position at any radio station, Bureau, or service operated by the Employer that was terminated other than by discharge for just cause wi thin the past 5 years, such employment shall be credited to total seniority of an employee at KPFA-FM. No employee shall be bumped due to senority accrued at stations or units other than KPFA-FM.

SECTION 17. SEVERANCE AND RESIGNATION/RETIREMENT:

SECTION 18. VACATIONS:

KPFA employees shall be entitled to a paid vacation according to the following schedule:

SECTION 19. HOLIDAYS:

A. Holidays are: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Presidents' Day, International Women's Day, May Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, States Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and a day of employee's choice.

B. If an employee is required by management to work 4 hours or more on a holiday s/he shall receive an additional compensatory day off. If any of the above listed holidays falls on a weekend, the employee shall receive the following weekday off.

SECTION 20. COVERAGE OF DUTIES:

When an employee is to be absent due to a scheduled vacation for two months or less, a temporary half-time hire shall be made. This applies only to News positions and reception.

SECTION 21. WAGES:

A. Wages are 1,889.98 dollars a month base pay. Wage and benefit negotiations will reopen in April 1st 1992. Wage negotiations will reopen again April 1st 1993. Wages for part-time employees shall increase to their proportion of full-time rate based on hours worked.

B. Seniority increments of $20 per month for each year of seniority shall be paid. Employees shall receive an increment on April 1 or October 1 of each year.

C. Management agrees to consider the cases of any present employees who have been especially victimized by the present timetable. No seniority increment shall accrue unless the employee works 9 months of the previous year.

D. Late paychecks: There will be a $15 penalty for each employee for any pay-check tendered 5 working days late. The penalty accrues for every 5 working days late.

SECTION 22. LEAVES OF ABSENCE:

A. Leave of absence: A regular employee who has completed 2 years of service may take a 2-month leave of absence without pay and without loss of seniority or benefits, upon approval of management. Given adequate prior notice, Employer shall not unreas onably withhold permission for an educational leave that would improve job performance and contribute to station functioning. There will be no loss of seniority for educational leaves.

B. Parenthood leave: Employer shall, upon written application, grant any regular employee a special leave of absence up to 9 months for maternity/paternity reasons, with full reinstatement privileges and without loss of seniority. The interim hire may last up to 9 months for parenthood leaves. If both parents are employees, then only one may take a leave of absense, or both may negotiate a shared leave. Employees shall be entitled to 4 weeks of paid parenthood leave. Single parents shall be entitle d to 6 weeks parenthood leave.

SECTION 23. MEDICAL PLAN:

Employer will provide no less than what Kaiser Medical Coverage Plan B provides at the time of this contract signing for all eligible paid employees. Management shall pay full family coverage for all eligible paid employees.Management agrees that KPFA ha s an informal domestic partners policy.

SECTION 24. SICK LEAVE:

An employee shall accrue paid sick leave at the rate of 1 day per month up to a maximum of 30 working days.

SECTION 25. DENTAL PLAN:

Management agrees to cover cost of dental insurance at the rate of approximately $15/month for single employees and $35/month for employees with dependents.

SECTION 26. HEALTH AND SAFETY:

Employer recognizes the right of the employees to secure, safe and healthy working conditions. The staff shall become familiarized with the different types of potential job hazards and the correct methods used to control them. A Health and Safety Committee shall be established, consisting of representatives from the staff and Employer. Its function shall be to provide health and safety education for incoming employees, to monitor health and safety conditions in the station an d to review complaints regarding any unsafe or hazardous working conditions at the station. Any worker has the right to walk off a job that poses an imminent hazard to her/his safety and/or health without loss of pay. Any dispute regarding health and safety that cannot be settled in the Health and Safety Committee shall be subject to the grievance procedure.

SECTION 27. DISABILITY:

SECTION 28. TRANSPORTATION & REIMBURSEMENT FOR EXPENSES:

All persons required to travel in connection with KPFA-FM or Pacifica Foundation business shall be reimbursed, provided such travel or transportation is authorized by the Employer (allowance for use of private car shall be $.20 per mile). Workers shall not be required to use their own automobiles unless it is a condition of hire or they consent thereto. Consent for use of automobiles for station functions regarding current workers shall be under separate agreement between the Union, Employer and affect ed workers.

For all authorized expenditures made in connection with their work assignments, employees and others entitled to reimbursement for expenditures shall be reimbursed within 30 days following procedures outlined by the Employer.

SECTION 29. CHILDCARE ALLOWANCE:

A. The Employer shall reimburse KPFA workers, including temporary employ ees, for childcare expenses for children through age 12 years, up to a maximum of $100/child/month for full-time workers. Part-time workers will be reimbursed at the rate of $.58/child for each hour worked. The Employee will submit an invoice for expens es incurred for childcare. The Employer will explore the option of contracting for childcare services for KPFA workers.

B. The Employer shall reimburse Unpaid staff for care of children under 12 years of age or those who require special attention while staff perform regularly assigned station duties approved by their department head, up to a maximum of $25/month. Unpaid staff will be reimbursed at the rate of $.58/child for each hour worked. The Employee will submit an invoice for expenses incurred for childcare.

C. An Employee may elect to apply all or part of her/his wage increase to her/his childcare allowance.

SECTION 30. TRAINING/CONFERENCES:

Employees will be allowed to take up to 5 working days per year to voluntarily attend with management approval career and professional seminars, training sessions, workshops and conferences without loss of pay or vacation.

SECTION 31. AUTHORITY OF UNION REPRESENTATIVES:

A Union Representative may request relief from the Employer from her/his duties at any time to investigate and settle grievance issues and present them to the Employer without loss of seniority or benefits. Relief from duties shall be granted by the Emp loyer immediately, except when doing so might cause injury to persons, damage to property or interruption of broadcasting or production of programming, which under reasonable judgement of the Employer will be harmful or disruptive to broadcasting at KPFA- FM and KPFB-FM. If the Employer so finds, the Union Representative shall be relieved at the earliest possible moment at which she/he can be relieved without any of the aforementioned consequences.

When any Union Representative is relieved from duty on her/his regularly scheduled shift to attend to grievance matters, she/he shall not lose any pay therefrom. She/He shall complete the grievance matters as promptly as possible and return to work as s oon as the handling of the grievance is completed.

Upon written notice, the Employer will grant a Union member leave for the performance of Union business without loss of benefits or seniority. Given at least 2 weeks prior notice, the Employer will give any Union member elected as a local delegate unpai d leave to attend district or national conventions or to participate in negotiations without loss of seniority or benefits

SECTION 32. STEWARD AND OFFICER SENIORITY:

Upon request of the Local, an elected Shop Steward will be given seniority pref- erence when layoffs take place. An elected Local Officer, upon request of the Local, will be given seniority preference at the time when layoffs take place in the station in which she/he is employed. No more than 3 stewards and officers shall be subject to this provision.

SECTION 33. MODIFICATION AND TERM OF AGREEMENT:

60 days before the expiration date of this Agreement, either party may propose modification, revisions or additions to the provisions of this Agreement. Negotiations shall begin within 30 days before the expiration of this Agreement.

This Agreement shall remain in full force and effect until the 31st day of the month and the 3rd month of the year 1994 and shall thereafter be continued for 1 year unless Notice of Termination in writing by certified mail is given by either party at lea st 60 working days before the next expiration date of this Agreement.

Legal notification by the Employer as specified in this contract shall be accomplished by notifying UE Local 1412, 5464 Foothill Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94601.

Legal notification by the Union as specified in this contract shall be accomplished by notifying the Executive Director, Pacifica Foundation, 2207 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California 94704 and the General Manager, KPFA/KPFB-FM, 2207 Shattuck Avenue, Be rkeley, California 94704.

To: Marci Lockwood, KPFA-FM
From: UE
Date: May 18, 1995

This Wage understanding is entered into between KPFA and Local 1412 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) herein referred to as "the Union".

As an addendum to our current UE contract, we propose that two sections be updated. All remaining sections will be the same as previously agreed upon.

Section 21. Wages:
Retroactive to January 1, 1995 base pay will be $2,146.21.

KPFA guarantees a cost of living increase (based on CPI figures from the previous year, 12/1/94 to 11/30/95) plus 1.4% of base pay to salaries effective January 1, 1996. Wage negotiations will reopen again at the expiration of this contract. There will be no wage reopener until the expiration of this contract.

Section 33. Modification and Terms of Agreement:

This Agreement shall remain in full force and effect until the 31st day of the month and the 3rd month of the year 1996 and shall thereafter be continued for one year unless Notice of Termination in writing by certified mail is given by either party at le ast 60 working days before the next expiration date of this Agreement.

Dated: May 18, 1995

Local 1412, United Electrical, Radio and MachineWorkers of America (UE)

KPFA

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