from the Portland Free Press

KPFA and Union Sign Contract

 After several years of on-and-off bargaining and a switch in unions, workers at Pacifica Radio's KPFA (Berkeley) have a labor contract. Within a week several of them were laid off.

The new union is the Communications Workers of America. Last spring, KPFA workers left the United Electrical Workers (UE) to join with CWA. 

The old contract under UE had included unpaid staffers, but the new one leaves them out. According to one observer, unpaid staffers had been kept in the dark, and felt unwelcome at union meetings. Often their bosses at work were the paid staffers in the union, and so the switch came without their knowledge or input. Bill Harvey, secretary-treasurer of CWA Local 9415, says the unpaid staffers were not all that interested. At the same time, station management was refusing to recognize them as union members, and UE had waived its jurisdiction. The switch came not by vote, but through petitions signed by paid staffers. Now that a contract has been reached, CWA is trying to organize the unpaid workers. If paid staffers were to go on strike, station management night be tempted to use unpaid staffers as strikebreakers. Would all the workers bargain together? That's still up in the air, said Harvey.

The new contract contains a pay raise. (According to a Pacifica-CWA press re-lease, it's 10.75 percent over three years. According to Paul Rauber of the East Bay Express, it's 12 percent over three years. He says there was no raise at all in the last two years, which is about how long the switch in unions and bargaining had taken.) It also calls for binding arbitration over grievances, for the station to broadcast a "voice bug" (similar to a union label), and to continue a child care allowance, health benefits and vacations of up to five weeks after four years.

 The CWA's Harvey called the contract "a fine example of the collective bargaining process." Pacifica's Executive Director Pat Scott said, "Both sides entered the negotiations with the right attitude, and the result is a fair contract..."

 Others were not so pleased.

 As a shop steward, Dennis Bernstein had urged union members to turn down the contract for these reasons:

• It would allow management to fire new employees at will, thus creating a two-tier system and negating the grievance procedure.
• It would make negotiations harder for union members at other Pacifica stations, while solidarity could bring a better contract. (Bernstein said WBAI [New York] staffers already had a six percent pay raise and a contract has yet to be reached.)
• The contract excludes unpaid staff.
• It bars strikes or any job action that interferes with operation. It would force CWA members to cross other unions' picket lines.

After the contract was approved, Bernstein told the San Francisco Bay Guardian it was a "union- accepted sellout." He said that, unlike other unions, "we're seeing employees at a progressive public radio station give up."

In a letter to the Bay Guardian, thirteen KPFA staffers disputed Bernstein, saying union members had voted to remove him as steward. They said they had rejected a tentative contract that included the no-strike clause, but eventually had to accept it. They said four people had been laid off and the union had filed grievances on their behalf As to the unpaid staff they said the CWA is making an effort to organize them.

Samuel Guia, a paid staffer and KPFA's chief union steward, quit his post when the contract was approved. He believes that management is trying to remove Latinos and people of color First to go was Patricia Medina, director of the Women's Department. She was told that all part-time producers' work will be taken over by the program director, a management position.

R. Paul Martin is the United Electrical Workers' shop steward at WBAI in New York. He said, "A union that allows CBU [collective bargaining unit] work to be taken over by management isn't even able to survive, much less organize and protect the workers. At WBAI we have a grievance and an unfair labor practice charge before the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] on just such a move to take work from the CBU."

 News Contract

Another contract is also causing hard feelings. This one is between Pacifica and the community radio stations that carry its network news program.

 The news will be transmitted on the KU band, and Pacifica is offering the stations free KU satellite dishes worth about $3000. To carry the news, stations have to sign a contract, cancelable by Pacifica if a station "dilutes the good will associated with Pacifica 's name."

So what does it mean to "dilute the good will"? It seemed to some stations that they could not broadcast anything unfavorable to Pacifica. Several stations had been running "disclaimers" telling about Pacifica's labor disputes, and had been under pressure to drop them.

 To anyone concerned about free speech, the issue seems clear. Pacifica has already insisted that, if stations broadcast its news, they do so without editing. In other words, Pacifica's news time is not to be meddled with. Is it now acceptable for Pacifica to tell stations what they cannot say on their own air time?

Several stations are trying to say "no." KOOP in Austin, Texas, was the first community station to air a "disclaimer" before and after Pacifica news. This was a brief statement about Pacifica's labor disputes and its hiring of a consultant known to be a union-busting outfit. KOOP's position was upheld in community board elections, and it now has joined another union, the Industrial Workers of the World.

When Pacifica offered a free satellite dish and a seemingly restrictive contract, KOOP trustee C. Paul Odekirk contacted other community stations for their response. 

KOOP's board refused to sign Pacifica's contract, and the station no longer airs Pacifica news.

WTJU at the University of Virginia will not switch to the KU band.

KGNU in Boulder, Colorado, crossed the "good will" clause out of the contract it signed. Pacifica rejected it. They now have rewritten their contract with stations, sans the phrase about good will but giving Pacifica the right to terminate the contract if a station regularly airs a disclaimer. KGNU never did have a disclaimer, but insisted on the right to air news stories on Pacifica. The station signed the revised contract, and broadcasts Pacifica news along with NPR and BBC.

WORT in Madison, Wisconsin, signed the contract and added a cover letter stating that it will continue its disclaimer and news regarding Pacifica. Pacifica rejected the contract. WORT still airs Pacifica news, but the network is rewriting the as-yet unsigned contract. As with KGNU, a compromise seems in the works: Unfavorable news stories about Pacifica are okay, but no disclaimers are permitted.

In Portland, Oregon, KBOO's station manager signed the new Pacifica contract without telling the board of directors.

It's worth noting that, at the time when KOOP began its disclaimer, little was being said publicly about Pacifica Network. People on the left were reluctant to criticize one of their own, but since then the silence has been broken.

One can argue that a news story on Pacifica is better than a daily disclaimer, which many listeners would tune out anyway. But I think it did serve to get people's attention. It certainly got Pacifica's attention. As Pacifica spokesman Burt Glass told the Austin Chronicle, "Our intention was not to discourage discussion of Pacifica, but we thought the disclaimer was outrageous and unfair and undermined our relationship."

Another positive outcome has been the launching of a news network among grassroots radio stations. The A-Infos Radio Project is a way of storing and sending programs over the Internet. Instead of having a central source, stations would contribute stories to the system and help themselves - kind of like a potluck. 

It means that if Pacifica were to stop its news feed, a station would not have to go hungry. And if Pacifica and the stations came to an agreement, then Pacifica news could also be part of the potluck.

Confusion and Compromise

Last June the Pacifica National Board met in Oakland. On the agenda was a change to its bylaws, giving Pacifica more say in how local representatives are chosen. As reported in our last issue, the bylaws change was seemingly tabled until the next meeting in September. But outgoing Chairman Jack O'Dell and others said it had been approved in February. This led to much confusion, as people consulted transcripts and bylaws.

Dissidents (including poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Dr. Helen Caldicott) hired attorney Dan Siegel to fight the bylaws change.

At the September meeting in Washington, Board Secretary Roberta Brooks (also an aide to Oakland Congressman Ron Dellums) made a new proposal. It would allow the five Local Advisory Boards to continue nominating two representatives each to the National Board, but the National Board would get four more at-large nominations. The board would thus go from 15 to 19 members, with local beards nominating ten of them Some called it a compromise; others were not impressed. Jeff Blankfort of Take Back KPFA says it's just another way for the National Board to solidify their control. 

In his remarks to the Pacifica Board, Siegel called for strong local boards, an end to secrecy and visits by new Chair Mary Frances Berry to Pacifica's five stations.

In a report to his clients, Siegel said Berry had agreed to visit the stations and hold on-air discussions, that meetings would be open and minutes would be posted. Siegel felt the beard meeting "was very positive."