Date sent: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
From: "R. Paul Martin" <rpm@glib.com>

 Let me first say that, at the end of the day, someone in the crowd reminded all of us that there was an irony in that Dr. Berry's visit occurred on the day of the 21st anniversary of the Management lockout of the Staff at WBAI on February 11, 1977, which resulted in the station being shut down for 50 days.

- - - -

SHE CAME, SHE SAW, WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS

Mary Frances Berry's plane was delayed for an hour due to fog, so the timing was off on everything.

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The "Report to the Listener" -- 1 hour

In the "Report to the Listener" segment in the morning Dr. Berry said that Pacifica would NOT be dropping the NLRB appeal. She said that they've already spent the money on this and they want to see how it comes out. So there goes any idea that she would stop that particular shameful anti-union activity. 

She also said that she would mandate a regular, monthly "Report to the Listener."

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The meeting with Staff -- about 42 minutes

She said that she doesn't know Pat Scott very well, but that Pat Scott is not in charge of making policy. Dr. Berry said that she believes in transparency, in not hiding things. "There will be disclosure."  

After a while she asked GM Van Isler and PD Marksman to leave so people could speak more freely. 

We got onto the topic of health care and she asked if people would like some jobs eliminated in order for half timers to get health coverage.

The health coverage issue sort of petered out with people saying WBAI should be able to afford it, but.... 

Asked about NPR she said, "I don't listen to NPR anymore because I know that the politics there makes some people do things they don't want to do." 

One person asked her if she thought we were doing "agitprop journalism," a charge of Pat Scott's. Dr. Berry said she didn't know what that was. 

There were platitudes from some Staff and various questions that got Dr. Berry to reiterate that there would be disclosure.

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Dr. Berry then had various tours and things, including a visit to the 120 Wall St. site that WBAI will be moving to. 

The meeting with the WBAI Shop Committee -- 36 minutes 

Dr. Berry was 29 minutes late for this meeting. 

Early in the evening she met with the WBAI Shop Committee. We brought up the fact that Pacifica was illegally acting as if we had lost the NLRB decision. She disagreed and said that it was standard to ignore a decision while you're appealing it. She didn't budge off this position even in the face of logic. 

We also told her that Pacifica/WBAI Management was putting a roadblock in the way of Contract negotiations. She gave us the tired, Pat Scott line that we should just then negotiate on Paid Staff issues only and that Pacifica would give us a "Bill of Rights" to cover the Unpaid Staff. I was shocked at this flagrant use of old bullshit. This was the line we got after we'd won the NLRB decision a year ago when Pacifica wanted us to just make believe we'd lost. 

We told her that rights that can't be enforced are not real rights and asked her how such rights were going to be enforced. She had no answer to this. We also pointed out to her that If there's one Staff under one Contract then the Union can defend people's rights. The only time when their "Bill of Rights" would be needed would be when there was a conflict between an Unpaid Staff person and Management. And in that case we didn't think that a Management person would overrule him/herself in such a case on the basis of some "rights" that Management had been magnanimous enough to hand down prior to the conflict. 

We told her that this roadblock to Contract negotiations was destabilizing the station. 

We also complained about the delays we've been running into with WBAI Management.

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Later on the halls of the 22nd floor were crowded with people wanting to get into the room where Dr. Berry would hold a little forum to take questions from people. This meeting started 40 minutes late. 

The "Public Forum" -- about 20 minutes 

We discovered that Dr. Berry had spent the previous three quarters of an hour lecturing the WBAI Local Advisory Board (LAB) about how no one associated with WBAI who was on the LAB would be allowed to vote, or even attend Executive Sessions of the LAB once the Pacifica National Board met at the end of the month and made that a rule. 

We have two elected representatives on the LAB, and there is currently one regular Board member who is a producer at the station. The Board member said he'd just resign rather than waste his time on something like that. 

It should be pointed out that they'll renege on their agreement about Paid & Unpaid Staff Reps. to the Board, but they will continue to allow Frank Millspaugh to be the WBAI LAB Rep. to the Pacifica National Board even though his membership in the WBAI LAB ran out in 1997! And there was apparently no problem with letting Nan Rubin, who's on this list, continue to act as Chair of the WBAI LAB even though her membership in the LAB has also lapsed. She is also still on the "Board of Chairs" which participates in the Pacifica National Board activities. 

I guess selective integrity is the most effective integrity. 

At the open meeting one of the producers of "Building Bridges," a program that covers labor issues on WBAI, asked again about what the reason was for excluding the Unpaid Staff, and why did she wants to kick Staff off the LAB? 

Dr. Berry said that she saw that wages wasn't the only issue regarding the Unpaid Staff and that she would read the Union materials (our now long-in-the-tooth Contract, and the Union's brief to the NLRB). She said that as for Staff on the LAB she won't support a decision (by the Pacifica National Board) that can't be rationally explained. "Don't assume that just because something is proposed that means it's going to happen," she said. 

One former Shop Committee member, and currently Vice President of UE Local 404, asked about the money for the NLRB appeal.  

Dr. Berry said that you can't assume anything until the Pacifica National Board says what their position is. 

A listener said that he'd heard about the appeal of the NLRB ruling and the attempt to bust the WBAI Union at one of the trendy clubs in the city. He said that he was appalled at hearing this, and that someone had told him that they weren't going to contribute money to the station anymore. He said that WBAI was losing money because word of mouth was telling people about this. 

Dr. Berry said she agreed. She said that if someone had told her that someone was appealing something like this she'd ask who these right wing nuts were. She said she also goes around the nation making speeches in favor of health benefits for people. She said she would read the materials she'd been given and would have a reaction to it all. 

With this it was 8:00 PM. Dr. Berry said she had to teach class in the morning and so had to leave at that time. The forum had lasted about 20 minutes. She left her E-mail address (mfberry@sas.upenn.edu ) and a snail mail address, also at the University of Pennsylvania, and split.

As she did so another question was asked and she replied, on the run, that listener surveys would be done. 

As she left there were various comments from the frustrated listeners, among them, "Next time take AMTRAK!" 

Nan Rubin said she'd take all comments and pass them along to Dr. Berry. And that was it.

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more about the union at WBAI can be found at
http://www.glib.com/

======================
Date sent: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
To: Free Pacifica <progressive-radio@tango.rahul.net>
From: RPaul Martin <rpm@glib.com>
Subject: Personal reactions to Dr. Berry's visit 

Well, just as a WBAI Unpaid Staff person I must say that I do not have a lot of hope in Dr. Berry's reforming the corrupt and hypocritical Pacifica National Board. 

After her presentations one person said, "Yeah, she's fully in favor of the membership of a Union exercising self determination, just not here at WBAI; she's in favor or people having health benefits on the job, just not here at WBAI." 

I'll just wait and see. By March 1, when the Pacifica National Board meeting is over, we'll know where Dr. Berry is coming from, what she's done and what her much vaunted reputation looks like then.

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