budget

Lively picket at Pacifica’s National Office demands firing of anti-union lawyers

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KPFA’s paid and unpaid staff turned out for a picket on a sunny afternoon last week in front of Pacifica’s national office to show their outrage with the network’s hiring of Jackson Lewis, the nation’s premiere union-busting lawyers.

Labor journalist Steve Early addressed the crowd, describing how Jackson Lewis operates to undermine unions and predicting that both the political and financial costs to KPFA could be devastating. Unpaid staffer Tina Bachemin brought a statement of solidarity, noting that Pacifica is part of the “bitter struggle that’s going on now across America to smash unionism and wage war against workers.” Listeners, many of them union members, also showed up in force, angry that their donations are going to anti-union consultants.| SEE PHOTOS here, and LISTEN TO KPFA News report

Meanwhile, KPFA itself is struggling, as every fund drive in the past year has come in below target. And last week, a lightning strike knocked Pacifica station KPFT in Houston off the air for two days. Repair to the station’s transmitter will be expensive. You can help with a donation here.

FACT CHECK: Tracy Rosenberg’s real record

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As the date of Pacifica treasurer Tracy Rosenberg‘s recall nears, her defenders are hailing her purported financial acumen and leadership at the nonprofit she heads, Media Alliance. So, how’s it actually doing?

We’ve charted the financial data Media Alliance reports on the publicly-available IRS form 990. The numbers begin in 2006, the year before Rosenberg took over the once-vibrant media organization. Since then, revenues at Media Alliance have dropped by a whopping 76%, and the amount of cash in the organization’s bank account has dropped to just over $21,000 — suggesting Rosenberg’s spent down 83% of the organization’s cash.

The backstory: Media Alliance was for many years a strong progressive institution in the San Francisco Bay Area — supporting freelance journalists with a health care plan (since discontinued), running regular skill trainings for media workers (there are none currently posted on its website), and helping to organize public FCC hearings on the effects of de-regulation and consolidation (none lately). Today, pretty much all that’s left is an electronic newsletter sent out by Rosenberg. | SEE BIGGER CHART

Time to renew your KPFA membership?

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SaveKPFA will be asking for your vote in the next general election for KPFA’s Local Station Board this fall, but you have to be a KPFA member in order to vote. Here’s how it works:

  • It takes just $25 to become a voting member of KPFA. Donate at www.kpfa.org/support.
  • You have to give in the year ending June 30, 2012 in order to vote in the next Local Station Board election — so if your last donation was before July 1, 2011, you have to give again to maintain your eligibility.
  • There’s a bonus for giving now: gifts that KPFA receives outside of regular fund drives don’t get levied 20% by Pacifica National. KPFA’s Spring Fund drive starts next week, but if you give now at www.kpfa.org/support, more of your money will stay with KPFA.