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Commentary: KPFA Workers Call for Violence-Free Station, No Harassment
We believe that Pacifica should not allow workers and women to be treated by the manager in ways that justifiably outrage progressives when they happen to workers at Mitsubishi or Denny’s. The Pacifica National Board has the power to overturn the Local Station Board’s vote and remove Campanella, but it needs to hear from concerned listeners.
Marc Sapir’s op-ed in defense of KPFA’s General Manager Roy Campanella II (“Coup Crystallizes Inside KPFA—Again?” Aug. 19) abandons reasoned analysis for a one-sided polemic, riddled with errors and hyperbole. Sapir appears to be singularly misinformed about the facts of the disturbing labor dispute at KPFA—a conflict that should concern all who care about this crucial 56-year-old institution and the vitality of the left in the Bay Area and Central Valley. If Sapir had bothered to check his facts, instead of repeating Campanella’s spin almost verbatim, he would have found that he was being sold a bill of goods.
Here are the charges, compiled from multiple sources:
• Within weeks of being hired, Campanella propositions women workers at the station, makes sexual and inappropriate comments to women, offers one the job of her colleague while making sexually suggestive remarks to her, spreads rumors about plans to fire a woman who stands up to him, and creates a pervasively hostile work environment for KPFA women. (Only one woman even alleges that Campanella invited her to the movies, contrary to Sapir/Campanella’s claims.) When challenged about his actions, he claims that the women came on to him, and then retaliates against women who organize themselves at the station. He publicly belittles women who turned him down and participated in an investigation into his conduct, threatens to cut their funding, criticizes their work to their supervisors, and other retaliatory behavior.
• Pacifica conducts an investigation into the multiple complaints about Campanella by the women at the station; unfortunately the investigation is full of errors and the women involved see it as a whitewash. While Pacifica states it is unable to “determine conclusively” whether sexual harassment has taken place, it finds that Campanella has acted a manner not consistent with “Pacifica’s expectations of a general manager” and he is told that he must change his behavior or could face consequences up to termination.
• Campanella allows a woman worker to be forced off a program where she was facing a hostile work environment, saying that he could do nothing to protect her, despite her pleas to him as manager of the station.
• On May 5, Campanella threatens Hard Knock Radio executive producer Weyland Southon and follows him out of the building to the sidewalk to fight, in violation of Pacifica’s “Zero Tolerance for Violence Policy” which states: “Any employee engaging in any type of threatened or actual violence against any employee, or the Pacifica Foundation itself, will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
• Eight women workers at the station file with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation by Campanella. The women specifically choose to go to the DFEH because it will not monetarily harm the station. If the state agency finds their claims to be correct, the DFEH will demand the station take action to rectify the problem, rather than awarding a cash settlement to the women.
• The union of the paid staff, CWA Local 9415, files with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of seven male and female workers at the station for Campanella’s multiple violations of labor law, which guarantees workers the right to organize and assemble freely, as well as guarantees a safe and violence-free workplace.
• The Local Station Board, which hired Campanella last November, employed a lawyer to investigate the allegations. As board member Joe Wanzala has told the press, the lawyer recommended that Campanella be terminated. Shockingly, in spite of this, the highly politicized board votes to keep Campanella in the job, despite the mounting liability in which he has mired the station. Even before the board completed its investigation into Campanella’s conduct, three board members publicly attack workers’ motives and dismissed their complaints.
Unfortunately, despite the struggle to save KPFA from hijacking by Mary Frances Berry and the Pacifica National Board in 1999, the station has been left with another out-of-control board. Members of the Local Station Board were elected with as few votes as 400 each—out of a listener-membership of 25,000 and an estimated listenership of 200,000—and as a consequence, the board is made up of many people who have narrow political agendas and regularly attack the workers that produce KPFA’s programs (for example, circulating an e-mail suggesting that one long-time programmer used to be on the payroll of the CIA). Animosity to the staff is veiled by sweeping claims that KPFA workers are resistant to change and participation by the listeners.
Sapir’s odd tale about coup plots and hostility to listener input raises some basic questions: Why would 91 workers on whom the progressive community of northern and central California rely daily for news and analysis on injustice, labor struggles, war and empire, as well as diverse music and arts programming, conspire collectively to ask for the termination of a manager without cause? How would that even be possible in a group known for healthy differences in opinion? How is it that 80 percent of the paid staff and 20 percent of the unpaid staff make up a “dissident group” at the station? And if opposition to Campanella at KPFA is really motivated by an aversion to diversity and change at the station, then why are the central characters in the dispute younger people and people of color? Could it be possible that the workers claims are valid?
Sapir’s commentary also gets other facts wrong, including the number of workers at the station (approximately 225, not 300) and the financial health of KPFA. Contrary to Sapir’s claims, expenditures do not exceed income. Sapir claims that KPFA has 42 full-time workers when in fact the accurate number for full-time equivalences (FTEs) is 38. Of those, 1.8 FTEs are funded by grants and cost KPFA nothing, bringing the number of FTEs paid for by KPFA to about 36.2. Additionally, Sapir alleges that the number of FTEs increased dramatically by comparing an inflated version of today’s numbers to the artificial low following the 1999 lock out, when there was an exodus of workers from KPFA and a hiring freeze was imposed on the station by Pacifica. It’s also worth noting that KPFA workers currently raise twice the money that they did before the lockout.
We believe that Pacifica should not allow workers and women to be treated by the manager in ways that justifiably outrage progressives when they happen to workers at Mitsubishi or Denny’s. The Pacifica National Board has the power to overturn the Local Station Board’s vote and remove Campanella, but it needs to hear from concerned listeners. To contact the National Board, or to find out more about the workers‚ allegations, go to http://www.kpfaworker.org.
KPFA Union Stewards:
Lisa Ballard, Webmaster
Sasha Lilley, Against the Grain
Philip Maldari, Morning Show
Mark Mericle, KPFA News
Here are the charges, compiled from multiple sources:
• Within weeks of being hired, Campanella propositions women workers at the station, makes sexual and inappropriate comments to women, offers one the job of her colleague while making sexually suggestive remarks to her, spreads rumors about plans to fire a woman who stands up to him, and creates a pervasively hostile work environment for KPFA women. (Only one woman even alleges that Campanella invited her to the movies, contrary to Sapir/Campanella’s claims.) When challenged about his actions, he claims that the women came on to him, and then retaliates against women who organize themselves at the station. He publicly belittles women who turned him down and participated in an investigation into his conduct, threatens to cut their funding, criticizes their work to their supervisors, and other retaliatory behavior.
• Pacifica conducts an investigation into the multiple complaints about Campanella by the women at the station; unfortunately the investigation is full of errors and the women involved see it as a whitewash. While Pacifica states it is unable to “determine conclusively” whether sexual harassment has taken place, it finds that Campanella has acted a manner not consistent with “Pacifica’s expectations of a general manager” and he is told that he must change his behavior or could face consequences up to termination.
• Campanella allows a woman worker to be forced off a program where she was facing a hostile work environment, saying that he could do nothing to protect her, despite her pleas to him as manager of the station.
• On May 5, Campanella threatens Hard Knock Radio executive producer Weyland Southon and follows him out of the building to the sidewalk to fight, in violation of Pacifica’s “Zero Tolerance for Violence Policy” which states: “Any employee engaging in any type of threatened or actual violence against any employee, or the Pacifica Foundation itself, will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
• Eight women workers at the station file with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation by Campanella. The women specifically choose to go to the DFEH because it will not monetarily harm the station. If the state agency finds their claims to be correct, the DFEH will demand the station take action to rectify the problem, rather than awarding a cash settlement to the women.
• The union of the paid staff, CWA Local 9415, files with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of seven male and female workers at the station for Campanella’s multiple violations of labor law, which guarantees workers the right to organize and assemble freely, as well as guarantees a safe and violence-free workplace.
• The Local Station Board, which hired Campanella last November, employed a lawyer to investigate the allegations. As board member Joe Wanzala has told the press, the lawyer recommended that Campanella be terminated. Shockingly, in spite of this, the highly politicized board votes to keep Campanella in the job, despite the mounting liability in which he has mired the station. Even before the board completed its investigation into Campanella’s conduct, three board members publicly attack workers’ motives and dismissed their complaints.
Unfortunately, despite the struggle to save KPFA from hijacking by Mary Frances Berry and the Pacifica National Board in 1999, the station has been left with another out-of-control board. Members of the Local Station Board were elected with as few votes as 400 each—out of a listener-membership of 25,000 and an estimated listenership of 200,000—and as a consequence, the board is made up of many people who have narrow political agendas and regularly attack the workers that produce KPFA’s programs (for example, circulating an e-mail suggesting that one long-time programmer used to be on the payroll of the CIA). Animosity to the staff is veiled by sweeping claims that KPFA workers are resistant to change and participation by the listeners.
Sapir’s odd tale about coup plots and hostility to listener input raises some basic questions: Why would 91 workers on whom the progressive community of northern and central California rely daily for news and analysis on injustice, labor struggles, war and empire, as well as diverse music and arts programming, conspire collectively to ask for the termination of a manager without cause? How would that even be possible in a group known for healthy differences in opinion? How is it that 80 percent of the paid staff and 20 percent of the unpaid staff make up a “dissident group” at the station? And if opposition to Campanella at KPFA is really motivated by an aversion to diversity and change at the station, then why are the central characters in the dispute younger people and people of color? Could it be possible that the workers claims are valid?
Sapir’s commentary also gets other facts wrong, including the number of workers at the station (approximately 225, not 300) and the financial health of KPFA. Contrary to Sapir’s claims, expenditures do not exceed income. Sapir claims that KPFA has 42 full-time workers when in fact the accurate number for full-time equivalences (FTEs) is 38. Of those, 1.8 FTEs are funded by grants and cost KPFA nothing, bringing the number of FTEs paid for by KPFA to about 36.2. Additionally, Sapir alleges that the number of FTEs increased dramatically by comparing an inflated version of today’s numbers to the artificial low following the 1999 lock out, when there was an exodus of workers from KPFA and a hiring freeze was imposed on the station by Pacifica. It’s also worth noting that KPFA workers currently raise twice the money that they did before the lockout.
We believe that Pacifica should not allow workers and women to be treated by the manager in ways that justifiably outrage progressives when they happen to workers at Mitsubishi or Denny’s. The Pacifica National Board has the power to overturn the Local Station Board’s vote and remove Campanella, but it needs to hear from concerned listeners. To contact the National Board, or to find out more about the workers‚ allegations, go to http://www.kpfaworker.org.
KPFA Union Stewards:
Lisa Ballard, Webmaster
Sasha Lilley, Against the Grain
Philip Maldari, Morning Show
Mark Mericle, KPFA News
For more information:
http://www.kpfaworker.org
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And, Isn't it strange that the head of a department (Mark Mericle) who can hire, fire and discipline people is a union steward.
Therse two observations do not come from a faction of the board as i am not part of any faction. These are just observations. The only person who i ever really discuuss the KPFA situation with, lost in the last election for the board.
Clearly, the policies of the entrenched Democratic Party lickspittles are the problem and Roy Campanella should be supported so that we can promote programming that increases information going to the listeners at the same time we increase cash flow coming from the listeners. Our democratically elected Local Station Board has not only resoundingly defended Campanella with a 15 to 5 vote, it has voted to make changes at the station, including the much needed change of having Democracy Now air at 7 a.m. instead of 6 a.m.,and repeated at 7 p.m., with all of the 7 p.m. shows moved to 8 p.m. and the filler-music shows start at 9 p.m., until we have political information programs to fill the 9 to 10 p.m. slot as that is also prime time. Guns & Butter, which airs on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. could and should be repeated Wednesday night at 9 p.m. The weekends also need to have full political programming from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., actively promoting socialists and labor. All music programs are filler by definition. It should be against KPFA policy to promote the Democratic or Republican parties, just as it is against KPFA policy to promote the Ku Klux Klan.
Another programming change that must be made is to never broadcast government hearings all day long. Most of what occurs at these hearings is procedural trash and the pretense of democracy that occurs at the hearings is just that. We are currently missing Democracy Now, Guns & Butter, and Flashpoints because of the pretense of democracy occurring with the confirmation hearings of the latest fascist court appointee, and we can be sure all the supreme court appointees will be reactionary. All news and quotable quotes from these hearings are part of the 6 p.m. newscast, and that is all that is necessary. We do not need senate confirmation hearings, government inquiry hearings or any other government hearings taking up our air time all day long for days on end. We now have 2 supreme court openings, and it is likely that the first choice for both openings will not be acceptable, mandating hearings on the second choices. These hearings will then continue for many weeks. We cannot cancel all our excellent political programs for these government hearings. This outrage also needs to end.
It is these kind of changes, and more, that will increase the cash flow and listener audience as KPFA is first and foremost a radical political information station. The days when it can get away with being a Democratic Party mouthpiece are long gone; no thinking person will tolerate that reactionary agenda.
The refusal of the senior manager-staff (Mericle's double role is probably illegal under the union contract) to implement the ordered change on Democracy Now is sufficient grounds for termination of employment of all those who refuse to comply. There is no union contract that allows for the refusal to carry out explicit orders of the managing authority, the Local Station Board and its station manager, Roy Campenella.
FIRE THOSE ASSHOLES !!!!
THE GERKS THAT ARE TRYING TO REMOVE FLASH POINTS HAVE NOW REMOVED DEMOCRACY NOW !!!
FIRE THOSE BITCHS !!!!
IIIIIIF SOMEONE WANTED TO LISTEN TO THOSE JACKASS POLITITIONS IN WASHINGTON ALLDAY THEEY CAN TUNE INTO NPR !!!
FUCK THAT CRAP !!!!!!!
There certainly does seem to be some filler in the schedule - 'visionary actvist,' 'stone's throw,' and 'herbal highway' belong in that category of throw-away programs that have pompous hosts with little to offer except their delight in hearing themselves talk. A full day of Congressional hearings beats those three any day.
... The days when it can get away with being a Democratic Party mouthpiece are long gone; no thinking person will tolerate that reactionary agenda."
But, that's EXACTLY the mentality of BENSKY, MERICLE, ALFANDARY, PRINGLE and the rest of that autocratic crowd at KPFA -- ALL DIEHARD SHILLS FOR THE DEMOCRAT PARTY!
As for the now age-old red herring at KPFA from "musician", above, "Music keeps us alive!"...: didn't BUSH fiddle -- err, play the guitar -- as poor Blacks in New Orleans were suffering and dying in droves? Maybe KPFA should have Bush on to play the acoustic guitar. Wasn't _music_ what the plantation slave master forced the slave nicknamed "Fiddler" to play in Roots while the other slaves toiled away? Wasn't _music_ what the Nazi concentration camp commandant for some Jews to play while most of the others were being gassed? Didn't the Nazis play Wagner in the evening after a hard days work implementing the final solution? Don't Israelis sing and dance in Tel Aviv while other Jews are brutalizing the Palestinians safely out of sight? Music isn't the answer for everything. Music can be a compliment to social change or even revolution, but not a substitute.
FOX has had EXTENSIVE and LIVE coverage of the black and poor human catastrophe in New Orleans.
KPFA has NOT!
What does that tell you about KPFA?
Where are all those PEOPLE OF COLOR programmers and producers who signed the no-confidence letter against the hyped sexual harassment claims against Campanella?
LOOK down that list of names who claim that KPFA is all about old white hippies and ask why those PEOPLE OF COLOR -- both men and women -- and those brusque younger white in-station faction heads like Sasha Lilley -- are not themselves out in front protesting that KPFA is not covering the New Orleans catastrophe, so that we can hear Larry Bensky (one of their old, scruffy, white-haired, white hippie leaders, father of a single-digit aged trophy child) on all day long! These people who claim to know how to run the station mission over the interests of the pro-democracy listener-activists and general listenership. Where are the fractious "black ultranationalists" at WBAI? Oh, they're all SILENT on this issue. While the rest of us are subjected -- once again -- to the long, long, tiresome, narrow range of Republicrat debate (this time at the Roberts' hearing) for hours on end on KPFA.
What about the socioeconomic CLASS VIOLENCE against the black and white poor in New Orleans? And KPFA has a Houston staion in a city where many of the evacuated poor blacks and whites have been taken. Where is Willie Radcliffe on this issue? Why hasn't he organized a protest in front of KPFA for as long as that dog & pony show in Washington is being aired on KPFA -- while bloated black bodies are still floating in the New Orleans flood waters, blacks were crammed into (and dying in) stadiums, like massive slave ship holds, and "shoot to kill" orders were issued against stranded "looters"?
Both Bush and KPFA have FAILED.
The word OUTRAGE doesn't suffice.
More like TRAVESTY!
signed,
thestrugglethatmustbe
Where are all those PEOPLE OF COLOR programmers and producers who signed the no-confidence letter _FOR_ the hyped sexual harassment claims against Campanella?
But there don't need to be hours-long, all night long, or nearly weekend day-long stretches of back-to-back music programs soaking up most of the critical time slots; this during prime time, late night and weekend hours, when most working people can listen to critical or timely alternative information. But that, again, is THE _TRUE_ REFLECTION of the anti-democracy in-station mentalities at KPFA, who _don't_ even want to democratize alternative information for the masses -- and their evident indifference to anyone but the privileged or, by happenstance, the semi-privileged. In-station mentalities who otherwise claim and _front_ at public events to be -- huh -- for the working people masses. It seems like they are more for just, at most, certain at least semi-privileged, office-working, work-at-home, single part-time coffeeshop/boutique/bookshop working, or retired WHITE folks -- _if_ you happen to be more or less in that category.
Music is at least 60% of KPFA programming, but such in-station mentalities claim that it's barely enough! How about 50% and re-distribute music and information in a way that makes more sense for the masses of working people? Like, re-distribute more music on weekday afternoons when people at work can enjoy it, but don't have to listen as closely. And put more, different, and somewhat longer public affairs programs on when the working masses can listen more closely -- or I _dare_ say to allow some extra air time for them to even participate in the program!
As I said above, music can be a (very strong and inspiring) compliment to social change (or even an emotionally and aesthetically recharging break), but it can not be a _substitute_ for it.
signed,
thestrugglethatmustbe