Los Angeles Arbitration
Berkeley-A Los Angeles arbitrator has issued an interim decision in the conflict between labor union SAG-AFTRA and Pacifica Foundation. The arbitration began last fall after Margy Wilkinson appointed community college instructor Leslie Radford to be KPFK’s new general manager and Radford laid off two union staffers and cut the rest down to 50% pay. The interim decision affirmed the union on all counts and stated the labor union contract had been violated multiple times by Radford and Pacifica, including:
a. Not consulting with the union prior to implementing layoffs in violation of the bargaining agreement.
b. Layoffs of union staffers that were a violation of the bargaining agreement.
c. Involuntary pay cuts that were constructive layoffs and the denial of severance pay due to employees if they chose to leave KPFK’s employment in violation of the bargaining agreement.
ED’s Wilkinson, Proffitt and Brazon and GM Radford insisted attorney Dan Siegel had advised them they were not violating the SAG-AFTRA contract, but Siegel was unable to defend Pacifica against the union’s charges, which have now been upheld in independent arbitration.
Following the arbitrator’s interim decision, the parties will attempt to settle the remedies due to the workers and return to arbitration if they are unable to come to an agreement.
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Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica’s storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin’s incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.
3 Cheers for Unions and the Union Movement, long may it live.
The actions of Wilkinson & Co. are so clearly in violation of the spirit of all the laws, not to mention every letter, jots or tittles, that it’s compelling evidence of insanity on her part and that of her grossly fracking faction, if you will, that you don’t need to be a Boalt Hall S.J.D., or even a pre-law enthusiast, to know that these odd presences within the Pacifica Community are continuing to do ALL of this extra-legally and extra-judicially.
Finally! An “interim arbitrator’s” decision. Some rule of law has been inserted into this process, and some due process.
May it increase, and may the rogues decrease! Soon.
We went through something like this at our Musician’s Union Local about a dozen years ago, several rogues wreaking havoc upon all the process through unconscionable (if not incomprehensible!) actions, their roguish take on a Kafka tale of the absurd.
If these rogues could feel the pain of the entire membership just for a moment, nationally, maybe that would jolt them into another perspective, like shock therapy at its best.
But maybe that’s the problem. If they could feel such things, they wouldn’t be this rogue?
Their blatant overstay of their welcome brings to mind something Gandhi is reputed to have said to Lords Churchill, Irwin, and the British occupants of India:
“You British have been guests in our country for a very long time and now we are asking you to leave….”
I won’t try to improve on that.