Another AFL-CIO labor council has come out in support of KPFA’s staff. The Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, representing more than 30,000 union members in Monterey and Santa Cruz passed a unanimous resolution taking Pacifica to task for “blatant anti-union actions” in its dealings with KPFA’s paid workers.
The resolution specifically criticized Pacifica’s national board for “making individual name recommendations for layoffs” — a reference to management’s targeting of its political opponents on the Morning Show, the Evening News and Against the Grain.
Similar resolutions have also been passed by the San Francisco Labor Council, the Alameda Labor Council and the South Bay Labor Council, as well as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the Berkeley City Council.
KPFA supporters handed out this flyer this month at a picket in front of Pacifica’s offices. Pacifica continues to refuse to mediate the dispute.
Aimee Allison layoff headed to arbitration
The layoff of KPFA Morning Show co-host Aimee Allison is going to binding arbitration next week. SaveKPFA raised $63,000 in pledges to restore the Morning Show — that’s enough to pay Allison’s salary and benefits for more than one year. But Pacifica management has turned down the pledges and instead is paying the anti-union law firm Folger Levin to fight KPFA’s union at $400/hour. Pacifica had already paid Folger Levin over $30,000 by the end of January 2011, and once arbitration begins, it will also have to pay expensive arbitrator’s fees.