Saturday, February 15, 2014

As predicted...Blosdale is back.

Letter to staff: February 15, 2014:

Dear all,

I would like to keep you informed regarding plans for the next 4 weeks of Fund Drive. Because of the time restraint, we have not solidified the schedule for next week but we have accommodated a few shows based on circumstances. However, I can't promise to accommodate all. You will receive an e-mail from me this Sunday as I meet with staff members to finalize the schedule for next week. There will no doubt be lots of re-broadcast. Christine Blosdale will be in New York to help with the pitching for one week.

Pre-emptions during this coming month do not necessarily affect programming decisions after the drive. I will call all producers affected and I will try to set up a meeting immediately after the drive at City College. During this drive, we have to make the equivalent of at least $20,000.00 per day for 25 to 30 days in order to honor our severance obligations and to catch up on all our bills (excluding back debts to the National Office) for Central Services. These past two weeks we have increased our BAI Buddy by about $1,500.00 which is a great step towards  eventually reducing on-air Fund Drive. 

Thanks,

Berthold Reimers
General Manager

Didn't we tell you? —Chris

11 comments:

  1. Blosdale is both, corrupt with conflict of interest and horrible. It seems that we need Pacifica to bring us the likes of her. Culturally, Blosdale and Summer Reese drink from the same water hole. It is an indication of his jadedness and cynicism, that Andrew Phillips has used Blosdale to pitch premiums and raise money when he was the manager over in California. So pathetic.

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  2. From what I read recently, Hennelly is on a downward spiral, though it is hard to tell, what exactly happened to him at WNYC. He had a conflict at WNYC. NYC had on the air radio staff that was unionized and the on-line production staff, that was not unionized, and was not getting the same pay and benefits. Both sides f the NYC were crossing over to work on the air and on-line as was necessary. Hennelly left the NYC over that issue. Apparently. He was picked up by a large union as a consultant, which I seen happen, when Management got rid of the more active, successful or abrasive shop stewards. He moved on to BAI, where the Management sacked him, showing once again, what a joke they are as an organization. A bunch of would be social revolutionary and social justice types behaving like a grubby small business with a narrow profit margin. Thoroughly mercantile and thoroughly anti-labor. There is a paradox, in which "socially responsible" image bearing outfits, like Ben and Jerry's and the now forgotten Well-Bread Loaf, both behaved like sweat-shops using union busting tactics to screw their workers. There, but for the grace of God go I, working for a crappy employee hiding behind tree-hugging and left wing fuzziness. All the more reason not to trust these radical hypocrites in real politics.

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  3. Ben and Jerry's shouldn't have to deal with a union, and its workers are not under dire conditions or paid low wages. Considering the type of occupations they are easily replaceable. No need to ruin a good thing.

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  4. Ben and Jerry has a horrendous overtime policy, where you can work a ten hour shift on a weekend or a holiday and not get tine and a half. That's why B&J maintenance electricians at their factory pushed for a union and got unionized. Had their resolve been weaker, they would have caved in to the B&J management. Kinda interesting, what made them so determined. I am not sure, which workers you are talking about, but if you are going to invoke the easily replacable line, then they probably need union protection.

    See the relevant article here:

    http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/its-business-man-unions-and-socially-responsible-corporations

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  5. In the countless articles pertaining to B&J's maintenance workers not a single use of the term "maintenance electricians" Maintenance Worker is a general term, and B&J workers receive close to the national average $17.59 a hour. These are jobs that are taught on the field, on the factory floor, and anyone with some sense, and discipline can qualify. Interesting article you posted, but I really don't see any fair description as to what these workers actually do outside from the writer or union dictating so. No one should get time, and a half for weekend or holiday hours. It should be considered as any other day. Fair pay, and as many hours possible should never be viewed as underhanded.

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  6. I enjoyed Hennelly's affable demeanor and some of the off-beat interviews and programs he tried to launch, for example his conversations with the safe driving expert, whose way with words was marvellous, entertaining and informative. However, I found the blanket pro-union mentality a bit off-putting, as the uncritical, wholesale embrace of anything is. There was a particularly eloquent telephone caller one day last week who astutely suggested that Hennelly needed to also cover the "dark side of unions." I agreed with the caller.

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    1. I am reminded of something Gloria Swanson told me. As you may know, she was a film star before anyone thought of calling people such a thing. In the very early years of silent movies, Gloria said, there were many women working off camera in positions that would later solely be occupied by men. The change was a direct result of unionization.

      I don't think Hennelly needed to go that far back, but he should have addressed the harm AFTRA/SAG did to WBAI, and the gender and racial discrimination that was practiced by some unions (firefighters, for example) until recently.

      I still firmly believe that WBAI—in the main—ought not take sides, just report the facts and allow the listeners to reach their own conclusions. Admittedly, some sides are a given when one adheres to Pacifica's founding principles, but WBAI tends to go overboard—Mumia is a case in point. One can direct severe criticism at the system that put him in jail, but placing a halo over his head is not a prerequisite.

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  7. Steve, the current Union labor standard is Overtime equals DOUBLE TIME after eight hours, Sunday and Holiday pay is TIME AND A HALF. You should also see the health benefits that I can afford myself. It is part of that concept we call a "Living Wage". My employer makes enough money to afford us and they value our dedication. And by the way, whether anyone from the street can learn the job or not, has nothing to with how much they get paid or if they should be unionized. And that line you made about weekend or a holiday being just another work day, that will go over well, if you run for office, except maybe on a tea party ticket.

    B&J's hourly wage is not close to national average, that you invoke, their electricians are in about 25th percentile of the maintenance electricians working in private sector, meaning that 75% of all maintenance electricians in private industry in the US get paid better than they.

    There is no such thing as a "dark side" of the union. Our system is based on adversarial relationships, which extends to labor, with the Court system dictating a fair outcome. Ben and Jerry will lose this one because they are wrong. Steve, you seem to have the mind-set of a small business proprietor who would screw others to afford themselves a middle class existence, which is not getting eaten by the shrinking economy. It is this kind of mentality that utterly corrupted the BAI. You, my friend, are a Herbert Hoover progressive, and I mean it as a compliment. Herbert Hoover was ahead of his time in his views on civil rights.

    Anonymous, mentality, like Steve's above, is why we need unions and collective bargaining. US has always been the world's least unionized country, but in 1950's, 36% of the American labor force was unionized, in 2008 it was only 7.6 % of the workers in private sector in the US, we are dead last among the world's developed nations, with the exception of France.

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    1. To deny that greed, corruption and thuggery have played a role in unions as they have in every other human endeavor where money and power are available is to ignore not only history but the realities of human nature. As Chris stated above, there can be undesirable and counterproductive consequences to placing haloes on less-than-saintly heads. Blind adherence to a cause and unskeptical support of people in power is superstitious at best and can become fascist when taken further. Frank examination of both the bright and dark sides of issues is the only meaningful way forward.

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  8. "B&J's hourly wage is not close to national average, that you invoke, their electricians are in about 25th percentile of the maintenance electricians working in private sector, meaning that 75% of all maintenance electricians in private industry in the US get paid better than they"

    Until there is clear evidence as to what these so called "maintenance electricians" actually do I refuse to chance my stance.

    As I said B&J pays close to the difference of $0.59 / $17.00 a hour for "maintenance workers" where $17.59 is the national average.

    "And by the way, whether anyone from the street can learn the job or not, has nothing to with how much they get paid or if they should be unionized."

    Unions may believe otherwise, but I, and many others do not.

    "And that line you made about weekend or a holiday being just another work day, that will go over well, if you run for office, except maybe on a tea party ticket."

    Times do change.

    "There is no such thing as a "dark side" of the union."

    Sure there is. Teachers Union is one of the best examples, and cause to be busted.

    "Ben and Jerry will lose this one because they are wrong".

    Hardly, same with many companies across the country who haven't lost because history speaks otherwise.

    "Steve, you seem to have the mind-set of a small business proprietor who would screw others to afford themselves a middle class existence."

    That's a bit extreme, net income of any business should not be the basis of what it could or should provide to its workers.

    You're edging towards labeling, and hopefully not unneeded insults.

    Its been a civil conversation as of yet.

    "Which is not It is this kind of mentality that utterly corrupted the BAI."

    So far what you've been posting is exactly what BAI has long represented.

    You, my friend, are a Herbert Hoover progressive, and I mean it as a compliment. Herbert Hoover was ahead of his time in his views on civil rights."

    I just don't believe in imagined rights.


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  9. Steve,

    Who said anything about rights, real or imagined? We are talking collective bargaining here, it is not a right, it is a negotiated contract, businesses can sign it, or not. As the Dems in office gain more tenure, the fortunes of the organized labor in the US will improve.

    BAI is like Ben and Jerry's, they talk progressive left, but they are anti-labor and the management there treats their paid and unpaid staff atrociously. The management culture at BAI/Pacifica is neither liberal, nor progressive.

    Union thuggery was a response to the thuggery of the private security and the strike breakers whom the businesses tried to utilize in the labor's formative days, and besides, I had the pleasure of working at a small business and at corporate union and non-union shops, unionized work-places win hands down. In addition, because of the hyper litigiousness of the modern labor organizing and of the constant adversity, modern shop-stewards walk on water, and if there is any corruption, they will get fired and criminally prosecuted, if evidence warrants.








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