The Progressive Radio Network broadcast an hour discussion of Pacifica in 2015 on September 22nd.  You can listen to it here or on the prn.org site.

Pacifica released tentative August 31 financials showing a $370K surplus for the year after the jettisoning of the $650,000 a year Democracy Now contract and a million dollars in bequests received in the spring of 2015. The financial results showed a $265,000 deficit at LA station KPFK, currently in arbitration with SAG-AFTRA and said to be borrowing money from undisclosed sources to make the September 30 payroll.  The operating deficit was 1/2 the size of operating deficits at KPFA in 2010 and WBAI in 2013 that spurred previous rounds of layoffs, and wasn’t the current largest divisional operating deficit: WBAI posted a $363,000 deficit.

The network is stating it cannot hold elections to replace board members whose elected terms expired 21 months ago due to the inability to come up with a $25,000 postal deposit to get ballots mailed.

KPFK interim program director Alan Minsky clarified his status after reports of the restoration of his salary caused anger at the station among employees facing current salaries of $22-25K a year, threats that the next payroll won’t be covered, and an uncertain future.

Minsky applied to California’s EDD worksharing progam independently, despite the EDD’s denial of Pacifica’s claim. His rationalization appeared to be that if the reason for the denial was that SAG-AFTRA had not signed off,  he could collect partial unemployment benefits as a non-union member, even though his subordinates could not. The EDD informed him that as an exempt managerial employee (i.e. paid a salary, not an hourly wage), he was not eligible to collect benefits.

California’s FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) is more extensive than the federal version and requires that employees who maintain exempt (i.e. non-hourly) status be paid a minimum of twice the full time minimum wage, thus bumping the exempt employees up to $38K a year, a bit less than the union full-time entry level wage. EDD clarified that while wages must be held at the FSLA minimum for exempt employees, their work hours accordingly cannot be reduced.

“For the reasons discuss below, the Department of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), the California agency responsible for enforcing our wage-hour laws, has made it clear exempt employees cannot participate in Work Sharing.
 
Beware: Work Sharing Not Available for Exempt Employees. Although Work Sharing is a viable and attractive option for many employees, it is not a “one size fits all” solution to reducing payroll costs without eliminating jobs. In fact, Work Sharing is not an option for employers who think they can reduce the work hours of exempt employees.
 
Also: Salary reductions. Employers may reduce the compensation of any employee so long as employment contracts or agreements do not prohibit doing so. As discussed above, however, there cannot be a corresponding reduction in hours for exempt employees.

Meanwhile, the station’s volunteer coordinator for the past six months was told to “clean out his office” to make space for a volunteer volunteer coordinator. The employee pointed out that Radford’s 2016 staffing plan indicated a 50% paid volunteer coordinator position which the union employee who was in the position should be eligible to return to under the contract’s callback provisions.  The employee noted that Radford appears to be “cleaning house” and reorganizing union jobs in order not to rehire current employees after schedule cuts are supposed to expire at the end of the year. The station’s webmaster position  was handled the same way, with the person filling it terminated but a modified version of the position recurring in the 2016 staffing plan.

A friend of Radford’s, LA activist Adam Rice, has been omnipresent at the station: DJ’ing music programs with obscenity problems, collecting $900 from Radford to provide security services,  and filling an unpaid position labeled as “community relations coordinator” which Radford is turning into a new paid position in 2016. Rice, a white guy from Chicago heavily involved with Occupy LA, has been Radford’s strongest supporter, dishing out abusive language to anyone opposing the manager’s actions. In fact, Rice told this publication under the nom de plume of “a real KPFK staffer” (but using his personal email address) to “remember, when slitting wrists, you cut down, not across”.  Pacifica in Exile suggests that verbal violence almost always constitutes poor community and employee relations.

Rice’s aggressive language follows a huge uproar at the station after a spanish language program shut down female callers saying the program’s guest was a notorious child molester, and the return to the station of a former local board member who got into physical confrontations with employees. Pacifica has had a troubled history with many lawsuits alleging sexual harassment and verbal and physical abuse. The PRC hour aired on September 22 indicated another situation emerging at WBAI.

KPFK’s local station board met in executive session to draft a feel good statement.

The resolution says “The KPFK Local Station Board goes on record in recognizing that the unfortunately necessary temporary reductions in hours for both staff and management personnel at KPFK, a non-profit listener-sponsored station, in no way constitute an attempt to undermine our SAG-AFTRA contract and have in fact preserved the union status of the union personnel. Indeed, the KPFK LSB takes this opportunity to reiterate its complete support for a unionized staff at KPFK. The General Manager shall distribute this statement to station staff.