AUG 17 - National Day of Action
NEW YORK (WBAI 99.5 FM)
6:30 PM Speak-Out at Washington Square Park
5th Avenue and W. 4th Street
Contact: Save Our Station, (212) 465-7562, patty@inch.com

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((*AND MOST
IMPORTANTLY*))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

DEMONSTRATE!  DEMONSTRATE!   DEMONSTRATE!   DEMONSTRATE!
Every Friday at WBAI
5:30-7:30PM

SAVE WBAI and protest Pacifica's hostile takeover of KPFA.
We demand the Pacifica National Board resign! Lynn Chadwick must be fired.
NOTHING LESS!!!

WHERE:
WBAI RADIO
120 WALL STREET
(east end near South Street Seaport)

WHEN:
EVERY FRIDAY beginning July 23, 1999 until KPFA is returned to the
community it serves and WBAI is freed of control by the greedy Pacifica
national board. 5:30-7:30PM

We call for an end to all union busting activities at Pacifica and a fair
contract for the workers at WBAI.

For Updates and to volunteer call the
Save Our Station hotline
(212) 465 7562
 

Date sent:       Wed, 21 Jul 1999 08:04:39 -0400
From:            "Paul Schaffer" <PSchaffer@mail.joc.com>
To:              freepacifica@recordist.com
Subject:         NY Daily News: further coverage
Send reply to:   freepacifica@penguin.josephson.com

            WBAI Staff Blasts
            'Anti-Labor' Tactics  (Wed. 7/21)

            By DAVID HINCKLEY
            Daily News Staff Writer

Staffers at WBAI (99.5 FM) have joined colleagues at sister
station KPFA in blasting their parent Pacifica Foundation
for policies that staffers fear could destroy Pacifica's
position as radio's last noncorporate alternative.

The Pacifica board recently moved toward a more centralized
policy-making system that lessens the voice of local stations and
listeners.

A hundred staffers and listeners at KPFA, in Berkeley, Calif.,
have been arrested in protests over the dismissal of hosts who
criticized these policies on the air.

The chief union steward at WBAI, R. Paul Martin, yesterday
issued a blistering statement saying "the staff of WBAI is appalled
at these anti-labor tactics" and vowing, "This assault will never be
forgotten."

WBAI, like the other four Pacifica stations, forbids hosts from
discussing policy issues on the air. Amy Goodman's "Democracy
Now" program was cut off last week when it got into that area.
But yesterday morning, WBAI "Wake Up Call" co-hosts
Goodman and Bernard White talked about the issue   gingerly
in response to listeners' phone calls. Goodman said both staff
and listener action is necessary, and while she didn't get into
specifics, she suggested it has to be well thought out and must
happen soon.

She said what happens at WBAI may be the key to saving the
whole network, an action she and White call essential.
Unlike National Public Radio, Pacifica takes no corporate money,
and thus is more apt to do stories on, say, exploitation of workers
and pollution of the land by multinational oil companies in Africa.

Without Pacifica, warned Goodman, those stories will not be told.
Pacifica staffers have been concerned that the board is tidying up
the organization so it can seek corporate underwriting   or sell
stations to take advantage of the current market. WBAI alone
would likely bring more than $100 million.

The board denies it will seek underwriting or sell. But the
newsletter Counterpunch last week published a memo that, over
the signature of a Foundation official, suggests exploring a sale of
KPFA.

Micheal Palmer, treasurer-elect of Pacifica and alleged author of
the memo, has not confirmed he wrote it. Described by
Counterpunch as an e-mail accidentally sent to the wrong person,
it says KPFA "would lend itself to a quiet marketing scenario of
discreet presentation to logical and qualified buyers."

WBAI staffers and listeners held a demonstration Friday
supporting the KPFA staff and opposing the sale of any stations.
WBAI staffers have been at odds with Pacifica for some time over
lack of a contract. Management wants to remove unpaid staffers,
a large part of the WBAI workforce, from union coverage.

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Date sent:       Mon, 19 Jul 1999 17:09:45 -0400
From:            "R. Paul Martin" <rpm@glib.com>
Organization:    RPM Digital Services
To:              freepacifica <freepacifica@penguin.josephson.com>
Subject:         open Letter to Pacifica Management from WBAI/UE Local 404
Send reply to:   freepacifica@penguin.josephson.com

Open Letter to Pacifica Management
 

        July 19, 1999

        The Staff of WBAI is appalled at the anti-labor tactics of the
Management of the Pacifica Foundation in locking out the Staff of KPFA
from their workplace.
        The assault on KPFA Staff by Management's armed goon squad will
never be forgotten and is a crime against labor, against KPFA, against the
community KPFA serves and against the rest of the Pacifica Foundation.
        If these tactics had been perpetrated by the owners of a coal
mine, a factory, a sweatshop or by any corporate board they would have
been reported and condemned at every Pacifica station.  That they were
perpetrated by the Executive Director in the name of the Governing Board
of the Pacifica Foundation does not exempt them from condemnation.
        We demand that the lockout of KPFA Staff end immediately, that all
scabs and armed goons be removed from KPFA's premises and that all fired
Staff be immediately reinstated.  We demand an end to the "gag rule" which
Pacifica Management has used to prevent reporting on these issues.  We
demand an end to the censoring of news programming and of Democracy Now!
on Pacifica stations.
        Pacifica Management is destroying KPFA, destroying Pacifica and
destroying the good will earned by the labor of Pacifica broadcasters over
the past half century.  All Union busting and anti-labor tactics must
cease.
        The Staff of WBAI supports the Staff and listeners of KPFA in
their efforts to reverse the great harm that Pacifica Management has done
to them and to the rest of us.
 

In Solidarity With the Staff of KPFA
 

R. Paul Martin
Chief Steward
WBAI/UE Local 404
-------------------------------------
A more graphic version of this open letter can be viewed at:

http://www.glib.com/open_letter_to_Pacifica_Management.html
--
http://www.glib.com/
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