Dennis Bernstein on KPFA Contract

Letter to the Editor, from Dennis Bernstein (host of KPFA's "Flashpoints") to the San Francisco Bay Guardian (Oct. 29, 1997), in response to a letter from certain KPFA staffers printed the previous week:

KPFA's 'lose-lose' deal
In response to a letter from KPFA staffers [SF Bay Guardian, 10/15/97].

1. Are KPFA paid staff, including on-air personnel Aileen Alfandary, Mark Mericle, Philip Maldari, Kris Welch, and Susan Stone, really proud that they granted management the absolute right to fire at will all on-air personnel hired after Sept. 1 of this year? If the contract was so good, why did these on-air people need a grandfather clause to shield their own behinds from it?

There is no ambiguity here. This contract states unequivocally that "management may terminate those employees hired after Sept. 1," with two weeks notice. As I wrote in a July 30, 1997, memo to all KPFA staffers, this gives Pacifica's current and future managers absolute control over the message and the women and men who speak it. Simply put, if an on-air host hired after Sept. 1, 1997, exposes the dirty deeds of a management-friendly politician, that host can be yanked from the air without explanation for vague "programming and/or creative reasons."

2. The new agreement, which both CWA and Pacifica have called "win-win," creates the same kind of unfair two-tier pay system that BART and UPS workers successfully opposed in their recent strikes. It specifically states that management can hire temporary workers for as low as $7.50 an hour for work for which other employees receive a substantially higher wage. UPS and BART workers have told me in no uncertain terms that they would still be on strike if management had tried to jam this down their throats.

3. Workers at sister station WBAI in New York have vehemently argued against the exclusion of unpaid staff from the bargaining unit. They courageously took the fight to the National Labor Relations Board and won. The NLRB decided that unpaid staff, based on the unique role they play at Pacifica and their rights under existing law, have the right to union representation. KPFA union members have stripped unpaid staff of their rights.

4. All four former elected shop stewards opposed this contract. Former steward Wendell Harper told me that the agreement is a sellout, particularly given the fact that management salaries have skyrocketed in recent years, while the staff's have stagnated. "In plain old English," he said, "it stinks ... lose-lose." In real terms, KPFA staff have abandoned our unpaid staff, created an unfair two-tier pay and disciplinary system, and traded our Folio (Folio workers were among those laid off) to insulate themselves against the very aggressive current management which seems to be following the lead of Wall Street rather than the mission of Pacifica.

But they are foolish if they think their grandfather clause will protect them from the unfair labor practices currently consigned to future generations of station workers. As soon as you open the crack of fire-at-will, there's no turning back.

DENNIS BERNSTEIN
Coproducer and cohost, KPFA's Flashpoints

For hair-raising documentation of what's going on at Pacifica, check out these addresses:

http://www.radio4all.org
http://www.radio4all.org/freepacifica

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1.	Are KPFA paid staff, including on-air personnel Aileen Alfandary, Mark Mericle, Philip Maldari, Kris Welch, and Susan Stone, really proud that they granted management the absolute right to fire at will all on-air personnel hired after Sept. 1 of this year? If the contract was so good, why did these on-air people need a grandfather clause to shield their own behinds from it?
	There is no ambiguity here. This contract states unequivocally that "management may terminate those employees hired after Sept. 1," with two weeks notice. As I wrote in a July 30, 1997, memo to all KPFA staffers, this gives Pacifica's current and future managers absolute control over the message and the women and men who speak it. Simply put, if an on-air host hired after Sept. 1, 1997, exposes the dirty deeds of a management-friendly politician, that host can be yanked from the air without explanation for vague "programming and/or creative reasons."
2.	The new agreement, which both CWA and Pacifica have called "win-win," creates the same kind of unfair two-tier pay system that BART and UPS workers successfully opposed in their recent strikes. It specifically states that management can hire temporary workers for as low as $7.50 an hour for work for which other employees receive a substantially higher wage. UPS and BART workers have told me in no uncertain terms that they would still be on strike if management had tried to jam this down their throats.
3.	Workers at sister station WBAI in New York have vehemently argued against the exclusion of unpaid staff from the bargaining unit. They courageously took the fight to the National Labor Relations Board and won. The NLRB decided that unpaid staff, based on the unique role they play at Pacifica and their rights under existing law, have the right to union representation. KPFA union members have stripped unpaid staff of their rights.
4.	All four former elected shop stewards opposed this contract. Former steward Wendell Harper told me that the agreement is a sellout, particularly given the fact that management salaries have skyrocketed in recent years, while the staff's have stagnated. "In plain old English," he said, "it stinks ... lose-lose." In real terms, KPFA staff have abandoned our unpaid staff, created an unfair two-tier pay and disciplinary system, and traded our Folio (Folio workers were among those laid off) to insulate themselves against the very aggressive current management which seems to be following the lead of Wall Street rather than the mission of Pacifica.
	But they are foolish if they think their grandfather clause will protect them from the unfair labor practices currently consigned to future generations of station workers. As soon as you open the crack of fire-at-will, there's no turning back.