July 2009
July 30, 2009 - Demonstration against Jorge Lobos
More about the demonstrations held in front of the WSDA building in Yakima last week. See the story in La Voz (Pasco, Washington, Espanol)
July 29, 2009 - Streaming from www.kdna.fm - Radio Communidad
We started streaming music the other day. See the box in the upper right. First, we used a "widget" to provide the link, but that appears to have a major drawback: If the user navigates away from the Home page, they loose the stream. so we've replaced the "widget' with a simple link that will open Live 365's Flash Player. Sorry about the commercials. If you are a Live 365 "VIP" ($75/year) you can listen without commercials. Please stay tuned and check back, as we will be adding informational talk programming soon.
July 27, 2009 - Swervin' KDNA
Chuck Perov is the organizer of the annual bike trek from western Washington over the mountains and into the Yakima Valley, that culminates in a visit and celebratory dinner with KDNA staff in Granger. For over fifteen years he has coordinated this adventure, which has turned into the major annual fund raising event for KDNA and NCEC.
This year, he heard about the troubles, and wrote to Maria Fernandez seeking a better understanding of what was going on. He has generously allowed us to share his correspondence here. See Swervin' KDNA.
July 25, 2009 - Morning
We've added a Community voices section to the menu on the left. Recent flyers, and a petition can be viewed and printed there, and we will be adding more.
July 24, 2009 - A lot of people are worried
At the same time no effort is going into raising new funding, or even maintaining relations with recent contributors, the NCEC/KDNA management continues to spend at an alarming rate. One would think that even if common decency won’t put a brake on the abusive labor practices inflicted on staff, that fear of running out of operating cash would give the Board pause to think. While it might have made sense during the 26 day strike to hire some temp staff, keeping them on after the permanent staff have returned to work makes absolutely no sense at all.
Added to the increased payroll are what must be enormous attorney’s fees incurred in unsuccessfully defending NCEC and KDNA management from the unfair labor practice complaints filed by the union. And soon, should Lobos and Fernandez ever stop stalling, there will be the shared costs of arbitrating the employee grievances. What an incredible waste.
We are posting a letter tonight that the Union sent to the NCEC Board on July 14th. In it the union outlines the circumstances of KDNA’s Programming Coordinator, Saida Birrueta, being served with a phony no contact order, and how the KDNA management of Fernandez and Gabriel Martinez duplicity responded. So far, there has been no response from the KDNA Board to the Union's letter.
As we said, people are worried. What can the Board possibly be thinking to allow the assets of KDNA to be squandered needlessly? We don’t know. Repeated letters written by friends of KDNA to the Board go unanswered. They refuse to provide a schedule of board meetings, provide access to board minutes, provide copies of financial statements, or even provide an accurate list of who is on the Board of Directors and when they began serving. These are all items which they are required to provide in compliance with the terms of the Community Service Grant they receive each year from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. By not complying, they are risking loosing significant annual funding. Restoring the credibility of KDNA after such a loss will not be easy.
Yet they remain silent, and complicit in the mismanagement of their executive director. It is the Board that will be held accountable. This kind of negligence is not something they can shrug off or blame on “the previous administration”.
Letter from Teamsters Local 760
Note: The demonstration in front of the Washington State Department of Agriculture building in Yakima that started yesterday continued today.
July 23, 2009
Not understanding why the WSDA would support the activities of NCEC/KDNA Board President Jorge Lobos and the disastrous affect they are having on the financial security and programming quality of KDNA, on Thursday friends of KDNA gathered in front of the WSDA's office in Yakima to call for his resignation from the Board. Link to larger picture, or to read short piece in Yakima Herald, or read report by KAPP TV
July 21, 2009
So what was "contemplative Sunday" about, anyway? Those of you in the valley know that the situation at the station seems to go from worse to worse, for the permanent staff, for the volunteers, for the community. For those not watching from the front lines, we will share as we are able to, but for now, why "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon"? The struggle for equity of human rights has continually been frustrated by language that denigrates, pigeon holes, "the other". I was surprised some years ago to learn that "the other" had become a legitimate term for describing the unknowable quality of an alien culture. For me, in using the term we abandon hope of spanning the chasm between our cultures, and end in accepting not only the relativism of our differing world views, but also legitimatize's the sheets and burning crosses.
"The radio says they were just deportees" - It's only words, but it makes Juan, Rosalita, Jesus y Maria into an "other', without history, families, without names. It is the power of our language that we can use it to turn human beings into "others" that do not deserve respect, life, or liberty.
What does this have to do with KDNA and NCEC? Everything.
July 19, 2009 - We're being contemplative today
July 17, 2009 - it wasn't exactly like that....
In an interview on KBCS's One World Report July 16th, Maria Fernandez said a couple of things that we cannot let go uncorrected.
First, referring to the disputed firings of two staff, "There was nothing abrupt about it, um, it was, a very long period of time where there was coaching involved, training involved, warnings also for a change in behavior and more than anything coaching and training. So there was nothing abrupt about the firings at all."
Matt Adams response on the program made it clear that there is no documentary evidence supporting any of Fernandez's claims. We just want to add one thing, early in the strike, in May, the staff proposed resolving the dispute regarding the terminated staff by going to binding arbitration. The staff agreed to end the strike June 11th after management agreed to binding arbitration, but management continues to postpone getting the arbitration underway. If Fernandez is so confident that she did not terminate the staff without just cause and with due process, then why do they stall the arbitration process?
Second, she claims "...the bigger economic impact that has affected NCEC and radio KDNA has been the, um, the amount of resources we have been having to utilize for the frivolous unfair labor practice claims against us by the Union, um, having to have a lawyer represent us, and also because there are many people who are friends or associates or former staff members of KDNA and NCEC that are calling our funding sources..."
Lets take these one at a time:
1. The unfair labor practices complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of the staff, are certainly not "frivolous". At least the NLRB has not thought them so, as they have consistently ruled, in favor of the staff, that Fernandez's practices have been unfair. (Link to NLRB findings) The quickest way to reduce that drain on resources is to stop harassing, intimidating and abusing staff.
2. Had Fernandez made any effort to work respectfully, in good faith, with the permanent staff during the first 6 months of her employment, the staff probably would not have felt compelled to seek the protection of collective bargaining and a union. But she chose to mount a campaign to try and drive them off, or invented excuses for terminating them. When she discovered that they were considering unionizing, it was Fernandez that chose to hire a lawyer instead of trying to resolve the staffs' grievances in a way that might have avoided what has now transpired.
3. Well, we certainly hope that friends of KDNA are now calling government, non-profit and other funding sources and letting them know what's going on at NCEC and KDNA, and that those agencies are now reading what we are posting on the web site. However, this doesn't explain why Fernandez was unable to raise any money at all in the previous eleven months prior to the strike, and prior to the release of Board Member Matt Adam's letter in early June. Perhaps Fernandez's practice of not returning phone calls to funders is really the source of their current economic dilemma?
Ultimately, of course, responsibility and accountability for all this resides with the Board of Directors, but under the direction of Jorge Lobos, they haven't been any more responsive to the concerns expressed by supporters and listeners of the station than Fernandez has been to the staff. Repeated, written, requests for the schedule of Board meetings, for an opportunity to review the Board minutes, and for financial statements have been ignored by Lobos. This could result in even more serious economic consequences if they are found to be out of compliance with the conditions of their Corporation for Public Broadcasting Community Service Grant. See, for instance, what happened at KBBF in Santa Rosa, California. Pay particular attention to the sections on Open Meetings, Financial Reporting, and Open financial records. CPB Review of KBBF-FM
July 16th - Radio Cadena Controversy
Tonight, KBCS in Bellevue (91.3), on the news magazine one World Report, broadcast a follow-up to last week's story about the troubles. Download file or play audio. You can also listen on the archive page of One World Report. KBCS's programming is streamed on the internet, so you can listen wherever you are: Live streaming.
July 15, 2009 - Buttons!
July 13, 2009
On Friday the 10th, the Board had their "benediction", sort of. There were about fifty invitees and temp staff inside the building partying, and about the same number of campesinos outside with simple signs quietly protesting. Presidente Lobos came out long enough to tell the protesters 
that they "are not the community", and,as usual, someone inside called the police to have them dispersed. The police, seeing nothing but familes with children and babies demonstrating on the sidewalk, simply advised them to try and stay out of harm's way, and left. A mariachi quartet from the high school did a short set inside, and afterwards, when they understood what was going on, performed for the families outside.
July 10, 2009 - In the news
Last night KBCS in Bellevue, on the One World Report news magazine ran a short story about the troubles at KDNA, focusing primarily on the issues around unionization. Hear the story.
There is something we would like to clarify for readers of this website: Neither the terminated staff or the staff still undergoing the abuse of the Executive Director are directly, or indirectly, involved in this website. The contributors to this site are people that deeply care about how community radio can, and has, been able to empower the disadvantaged. While we do communicate with the staff, their speaking out about the conditions at the station may put their employment in jeopardy. Thus, we will not publish anything here that puts the staff at risk of further retaliatory acts by the Executive Director.
We do sympathize with the staff having to endure these awful circumstances while trying to perform their work in helping the community and assisting clients. And we are astounded at the turn of events whereby an organization founded on principles of fairness, social justice, and with a belief in workers rights now finds itself at the mercy of people with completely contrary agendas.
This Executive Director's management philosophy of abuse and intimidation makes it clear that the Mission of the station has been corrupted, the Board of Directors has broken faith with the community of listeners, and the community is now being denied access to their airwaves. This website is about returning the station to its Mission and to the community.
Thanks to KBCS for bringing this problem to a wider audience. We believe there is a lesson to be learned here by all progressive organizations working to build a more just and equitable society. Lets hope we all learn it in time.
July 9, 2009 - More from the community
Here's a link to a letter to the editor published Tuesday, July 7th, in El Sol de Yakima in which the writer expresses her distress at the programming changes instituted by the Executive Director and demands her resignation. We hope to have a translation up soon.
July 7, 2009 - Follow-up to last Thursday's hearing
After last Thursday's hearing where Judge Fitch denied the petition filed by Victor Sanchez, Saida,
upon returning to work on Monday was confronted by the Executive
Director, who told Saida that she did not know why she had missed
work for two weeks, and acted like she knew nothing about the restraining
order. The ED certainly knew about it on Thursday, when she attended
the hearing with Victor Sanchez and her other temporary staff. The
ED then suspended Saida for another week with no pay. The ED's statement
and actions against Saida are examples of the continuing acts of
retaliation and abuse of the employees of KDNA.
July 4, 2009 - Partying while KDNA Suffers
There's going to be a kind of party soon at the Granger
Community Center (the KDNA facility in Granger, Washington), although
it appears that longtime friends and supporters are not invited,
and it is unclear what they could possibly be celebrating. Evidently
the new Executive Director decided the building needed to be "blessed",
and under the guise of a "benediction" she has invited
her favorites to dance on the graves of the people that sacrificed
large parts of their lives to raise the money to keep the station
thriving for 30 years, and pay for the one-year old building. Her
celebration may be premature as word is spreading about the terrible
conditions she has imposed, the lack of any productive effort on
her part to raise money for the station, and, some of her supporters
have started to have doubts as to her performance and integrity.
Perhaps this could be an opportunity to let the attendees know what
we think. The event is currently scheduled for Friday July 10, 5pm
to 7pm at the Northwest Communities Education Center building, 121
Sunnyside Ave, Granger. To confirm and ask about the intent of this
celebration and its agenda, you can try calling 509-854-1900 or
509-854-2222. You might consider asking how they can party when
the community is in an uproar over the loss of its radio station
and the abuse of the staff.
"Blind' justice sees through Executive Director's attempts to purge staff
Meanwhile, down the road at the Yakima District Court
in Grandview, on July 2nd, Judge Rod F Fitch heard the case of Victor
Sanchez, who had sought to have two KDNA employees barred from within
500 feet of the station because they had called him a "scab"
as he crossed the picket line during the strike. Within 15 minutes,
Judge Fitch dismissed the petition, reminding Sanchez that he had
already denied the no contact order when Sanchez filed his complaint
almost three weeks after the alleged incident and after the strike
had ended. One staff member, Saida, was elated to learn that she
was free to return to work, while the other, Carolina, is waiting
for the arbitration proceedings, agreed to by the KDNA Board, to
get underway.
Staff member Saida Rodriguez with |
One troubling twist to this story was that even though the Court
never issued a no contact order, some one contacted the police and
they responded, escorting Saida from the building and telling her
she could not return to work. Judge Fitch repeatedly stated that
she had been misinformed. By the police? By the KDNA Executive Director?
And, who contacted the police in the first place? Sanchez, the Executive
Director, the Mayor? Saida is due an explanation, and compensation
for lost wages.
 Staff member Carolina Velasquez with her family, after the case was dismissed. |
Sanchez is one of the people hired by the Executive Director to replace staff during the strike. Now that the strike is over, and the permanent staff have returned to work, it is unclear how she can afford to keep him, and the other "temps" on payroll.
NLRB rules against Executive Director and Board
And in another example of the courts ruling against the behavior
of the Executive Director, the National Labor Relations Board ruled
on seven complaints filed by KDNA staff in response to continuing
intimidation and abuse. The NLRB found in all seven instances that
management "...has been interfering with, restraining, and
coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section
7 of the Act" (National Labor Relations Act). Each new finding
of the NLRB continues to show that KDNA management is engaging in
a pattern of abusive labor practices that are completely inconsistent
with the NCEC/KDNA Mission, and that are shocking in 21st century
America.
See June 2009 posts
