July at WBAI
a series of memos from the union to management, documenting management avoidance in confronting grievances currently in process
========================================
Date sent:        Fri, 31 Jul 1998
From:             "R. Paul Martin" <rpm@glib.com>
Subject:          July at WBAI

It has been suggested that I post some of the memos that I've been sending to WBAI's nutty GM Valerie Van Isler, just to show how things are at WBAI right now.

One of the problems we have at WBAI is that Valerie Van Isler simply will not tell the truth a lot of the time and frequently does not want to meet with the Shop Committee at all for any reason.  When the Shop Committee and our UE Rep. showed up a meeting with WBAI Management on
July 30, we found Van Isler claiming that the meeting had been set for two hours earlier.  So when we rescheduled the meeting for July 10, I sent the following memo.  It should be noted that the body of this memo was in 24 point type.

*******************

MEMORANDUM TO: Valerie Van Isler, General Manager WBAI

FROM: R. Paul Martin

DATE: July 7, 1998

RE: Confirmation of meeting on July 10th, 1998

------------------------------
     This is to confirm that the Shop Committee will meet with you on
Friday July 10th, 1998, at 4:30 PM on the 10th floor at 120 Wall St.
     Please make note of the date, time and location of this meeting so
that you will not get it wrong again.

 
cc:  Utrice Leid, Errol Maitland, Brother Shine, Tom Whelan, Daa'iya
Lomax, Chris Costello (U.E. Rep.), Charles Potter (formerly of the WBAI
Local Board), Bill Henning (formerly of the WBAI Local Board)

*******************

The reason why this is cc-ed to two people listed as "formerly of the WBAI Local Board" is because they were the last two left on the WBAI LAB Labor Committee, I think they called it.  Both are no longer members, but the LAB hasn't gotten around to giving us new names to send these
memos to.  I did bring this up to the WBAI LAB last Tuesday night.

Regular readers will remember that I vented to the list about Valerie Van Isler's committing to give the Union a written proposal regarding the jobs of the operations Assistants on July 17.  This is the memo I sent her after I'd cooled off a little.

*******************

MEMORANDUM TO: Valerie Van Isler, General Manager WBAI

FROM: R. Paul Martin

DATE: July 19, 1998

RE: Your failure to present Management's proposals

------------------------------

     At our meeting on July 10th, 1998, you said that you would give
Management's second proposal regarding the Operations Assistants to the
Union, in writing, on Friday, July 17th.
     When I arrived at the station on Friday I found that not only was
there no written proposal, but that you had not been in the station for
two days!  The Program Director informed me that you had left for a
community radio development director's conference on Wednesday evening.
     This is yet another instance of the bad faith you have exhibited in
negotiations with the Union.
     The Union, along with everyone else at WBAI, is disgusted with your
dilatory actions on this issue.  The Union is attempting to negotiate in
good faith with Management over the issue of three workers' jobs at
WBAI.  Your first proposal to the Union was to illegally fire the three
Operations Assistants at the end of this month and then hire new people
into their jobs.  The Union rejected your proposal and informed you that
such a course of action was illegal and would be resisted.
     If you are serious about these negotiations you had better get your
second, written proposal on these jobs together in a hurry and present
it to the Union.  If, however, you do not take your job as General
Manager seriously then you should relieve WBAI of the burden your
presence has become and leave.  Perhaps you can find some other job
where you can fail to fulfill your obligations, lie, operate without
fiscal oversight, fail to pay bills on time and violate the National
Labor Relations Act with impunity, but WBAI is not the place where this
sort of behavior will be tolerated.
     If you have decided to go back on your word again and not render a
second proposal, but leave the matter as it stood on July 10th, then let
us know that immediately, and we will take action.

 
cc:  Utrice Leid, Errol Maitland, Brother Shine, Tom Whelan, Daa'iya
Lomax, Max Schmid, Sidney Smith, Chris Costello (U.E. Rep.), Charles
Potter (formerly of the WBAI Local Board), Bill Henning (formerly of the
WBAI Local Board)

So Van Isler later verbally told me that she intended to give us a written proposal about the Operations Assistants' jobs at the July 27, meeting.  We wanted to avoid another phony excuse from her about the meeting being at a different time, or on a different planet, so we sent this rather mundane looking memo.

*******************

MEMORANDUM TO: Valerie Van Isler, General Manager WBAI

FROM: R. Paul Martin

DATE: July 13, 1998

RE: Meeting July 27th, at 6:30 PM

------------------------------

     This is to confirm that Chris Costello will be able to make the
meeting scheduled to take place between the Shop Committee and
Management on Monday, July 27th, 1998, at 6:30 PM.
     Please confirm that you will be able to make this meeting and that
we agree, in writing, on the date and time.

 
cc:  Utrice Leid, Errol Maitland, Brother Shine, Tom Whelan, Daa'iya
Lomax, Chris Costello (U.E. Rep.), Charles Potter (formerly of the WBAI
Local Board), Bill Henning (WBAI Local Board)

*******************
Yes, the sharp eyed will note that I accidentally left the "formerly of" off Bill Henning's appellation.

It should be noted that Valerie Van Isler was the one to propose the 6:30 PM time for this meeting in the first place.

Nothing's ever easy when dealing with Valerie Van Isler.  At her General Manager's Staff meeting of July 22, she told me that the meeting between herself and the Shop Committee needed to be moved up and asked if 3:00 PM on either July 27, or July 30, would be possible.  Of course July 30
was the date set by WBAI Management for the Operations Assistants to be fired from their jobs so that others could be hired into them.  This resulted in yet another memo which tried to nail down the date and time of the meeting.

*******************

MEMORANDUM TO: Valerie Van Isler, General Manager WBAI

FROM: R. Paul Martin

DATE: July 23, 1998

RE: Meeting July 27th, at 3:00 PM

------------------------------

     This is to follow up my verbal confirmation, let on your voice mail
today at 4:28 PM, that Chris Costello and the Shop Committee will be
able to make the meeting scheduled to take place between the Shop
Committee and Management on Monday, July 27th, 1998, at 3:00 PM.
     You told me at last night's meeting that we needed to move that
meeting up from the previously scheduled 6:30 PM time to 3:00 PM.  You
also asked if we could postpone that meeting until May 30th.  I told you
that wouldn't leave us much time as you had said at our meeting on July
10th, that you were going to fire the Operations Assistants on July
30th.  As it turns out, Chris Costello cannot make a July 30th, meeting
anyway.  So we have to meet, as previously agreed upon, this Monday,
July 27th, at 3:00 PM.

     I will also note that as of last night you still had not given the
Shop Committee Management's new proposals in writing regarding the
Operations Assistants' jobs (see my memo to you RE: Your failure to
present Management's proposals, dated July 19, 1998).

cc:  Utrice Leid, Errol Maitland, Brother Shine, Tom Whelan, Daa'iya
Lomax, Chris Costello (U.E. Rep.), Charles Potter (formerly of the WBAI
Local Board), Bill Henning (formerly of the WBAI Local Board)
*******************

In the first line of the memo "let" should be "left," and the reference to May 30th, should be July 30th.  Spell checkers improve things, but they can't correct some typos.

No meeting is ever certain with Valerie Van Isler.  She cancelled the one set for July 27, at the last moment.  This is our latest effort to nail down a meeting.  I handed this her only about seven hours ago.

*******************

MEMORANDUM TO: Valerie Van Isler, General Manager WBAI

FROM: R. Paul Martin

DATE: July 30, 1998

RE: Meeting August 5th, at 5:00 PM

------------------------------

     This is to confirm that the Shop Committee will meet with you on
Wednesday August 5th, at 5:00 PM, as per the request of your lawyer, Mel
Wulf.
     This meeting had previously been scheduled for Monday, July 27th,
1998, at 3:00 PM at your request, but you then had your lawyer cancel it
mere hours before it was supposed to happen.  We need to have this
meeting to cover several important station issues so please do not
cancel this one.

     It is my understanding the Mel Wulf told our UE Rep. Chris Costello
that the illegal, unfair and actionable termination of all Operations
Assistants, which you had said you would implement on July 30th, is not
now going to happen.  I am informed that Mr. Wulf did not set any new
deadlines for firing the Operations Assistants.

     As of Tuesday night July 28th, you still had not given the Shop
Committee Management's new proposals in writing regarding the Operations
Assistants' jobs (see my memos to you RE: Your failure to present
Management's proposals, dated July 19, 1998, and RE: Meeting July 27th,
at 3:00 PM, dated July 23, 1998).  You had promised to give us these
proposals by July 17th.  Obviously it would move things along much
faster if the Shop Committee could see and consider these proposals
before the August 5th, meeting.

 
cc:  Utrice Leid, Errol Maitland, Brother Shine, Tom Whelan, Daa'iya
Lomax, Chris Costello (U.E. Rep.), Charles Potter (formerly of the WBAI
Local Board), Bill Henning (formerly of the WBAI Local Board)
 

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