KPFA’s Broadcasters of Color and Unpaid Staff Town Hall Meeting
Thursday April 11
6:00 PM
Laney College
900 Fallon Street, Oakland
Student Center Room 401 (4th floor)
Contact: Block Report Radio blockreportradio [at] gmail.com
We will talk about:
1. The arbitrary suspension of Black broadcaster JR Valrey from the Morning Mix, without due process; as well as the consistent racist treatment of broadcasters and staff of color in the recent past including Nadra Foster, Carrie Core, Miguel Gavilan Molina, and more.
2. The 2 tier treatment system in which KPFA/Pacifica deals with the paid and the un-paid staff. 80% of the broadcasters at KPFA are unpaid, the 20% that are paid use up all of the resources, although it is mandated that all broadcasters raise funds. The Un-paid staff has NO say in the budget, hiring, office allocation, etc.
3. A program Council does not exist at KPFA. The Program Council used to be a group that consisted of 1/3 listeners, 1/3 broadcasters, and 1/3 management, that evaluated broadcasts as well as recommended changes to the programming grid. In ’08-’09 former Program Director Sasha Lilley , of Against the Grain radio show, abolished the process, effectively getting rid of listeners and broadcasters participation in programming decisions.
4. The lack of a process to address grievances from the un-paid staff in a timely manner.
5. Selective enforcement of the rules by Pacifica and KPFA Management. Un-paid staff are penalized while paid staff, for the same infractions are not even addressed, let alone punished.
6. The Pseudo-union C.W.A. represents significantly less than half of the staff. It effectively controls the station and runs it into the ground, for the benefit of the entrenched staff.
It will feature presentations by Frank Sterling of the KPFA Local Station Board, Tracy Rosenberg of the Pacifica National Board, and The “Suspended” People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey of Block Report Radio
For more info you can call The SF Bay View Newspaper at 415-671-0789
For some background history of the labor issues at KPFA, please read:
http://sfbayview.com/2010/kpfas-working-majority-gets-screwed-by-cwa/
If the unpaid staff at KPFA still had a union, JR would not have been suspended without a proper grievance procedure.
The reason why the unpaid staff were excluded from the union is because back in the 1990’s some of the paid staff voted to switch from the UE, which included all workers at the station, to the CWA, which excluded the unpaid staff – the majority of the workers.
Some people will claim that the decision to exclude the unpaid staff was made by the National Labor Relations Board, but that is historically incorrect: The switch to the CWA happened before the NLRB sided with the former Pacifica management and prohibited unpaid staff from union membership. At the time of the switch, the NLRB still upheld the right of the unpaid staff to be in the union.