Pacifica & WBAI Management to appeal NLRB decision. Will probably spend hundreds of thousands on it.

In a press release dated February 18, Pacifica Executive Director Pat Scott said that she was "disappointed" in the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that the Unpaid Staff and the Business Director are members of the WBAI Collective Bargaining Unit (CBU) and that Pacifica "would appeal" it.

Some members of the WBAI Local Board have estimated that the appeals would cost hundreds of thousands of listener dollars, and no one thinks that the listener/sponsors would approve of the money they donate to the station for its operation being used in this manner.

At the February 18 Contract negotiation meeting WBAI Management gave the Shop Committee a memo wherein they state their intention to ignore the NLRB decision, and ask for the Shop Committee to negotiate a Paid Staff-only Contract, stating that negotiations are "very close" to agreement on all Paid Staff issues. In fact it would be illegal for the Union to abandon part of the CBU, and it is illegal for Management to ignore the NLRB ruling. Management held a Staff meeting on March 6, and spread these lies to the captive audience of Paid Staff, some of whom were already wearing "Fair Contract Now!" and "Whatever It Takes" stickers as part of our Support Pacifica Workers Day.

Management's refusal to negotiate, and their attempt to go around the Union and lobby the workers to give up in the face of the NLRB decision, which also keeps the Business Director in the CBU, are illegal and constitute "interference" by law. Accordingly, UE has filed Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against WBAI Management, in addition to the ULP charges already filed against them last July.

Management had originally attempted to remove about half of the Paid Staff from the CBU, but in the end only attempted to remove one Paid Staff person and the Unpaid Staff.

Management lied to the NLRB to get their appeal time extended by a couple of weeks. They said the NLRB letter had arrived on February 18, many people saw it arrive on February 14. There is apparently no depth to which Management will not sink to gain favor with Pat Scott.

Because of Management's refusal to bargain on a Contract for the entire CBU, the Union has told Management that we will not meet with them until they agree to bargain in good faith. Our letter to this effect is on the back of this Bulletin.

Paid and Unpaid Staff representatives to WBAI Local Board told they've been removed!

Sybil Wong and Mimi Rosenberg have been told by Local Board Chair Nan Rubin that they will not be allowed to continue on as Paid and Unpaid Staff representatives even though they were reelected to those posts in December! Rubin reportedly said that the Pacifica National Board, in its recent secret meeting, had voted to remove all Staff from Local Boards. No one has this in writing yet because the minutes of these meetings are usually secret as well. Michio Kaku and Hank Kee get dumped when their terms end. This will all come to a head on Tuesday, March 25, at the next Local Board meeting on the 22^nd floor. Public "welcome."

WBAI Web site shut down!

The "official" WBAI Web site at www.wbai.org has been shut down by Pacifica. Seen as yet another attempt to centralize everything about Pacifica in Pat Scott's hands, this act has been called "an outrage" by many members of the on-line community. The site at www.dorsai.org/~wbai will continue to resist Pat Scott's latest assault on diversity.

Also see www.interport.net/~rpmartin/union