Labor unions support NAB panel

Labor Action Committee on NAB
For Immediate Release: September 21,2000 Contact: Louie Rocha, (408) 261-4151 Steve Zeltzer (415) 641-4440 Art Persyko (415) 643-2235 Curt Gray (510) 704 8817


NAB Protests Supported by Bay Area Labor Unions:
Labor Forum Thursday 9/21 at 7 p.m.
Labor contingent at Rally and March Saturday 9/23
The NAB protests in San Francisco this week have garnered support of labor unions all over the Bay Area. Three Bay Area Central Labor Councils (San Francisco, San Mateo and the South Bay) as well as unions from the International Longshoremen to the National Writers Union have thrown in their lot with the other US and Bay Area media activists who feel that the public's airwaves have largely been usurped by corporations whose major preoccupation is to make a profit, at the expense of the public interest. Union members are further aggrieved in that they do not see or hear about their struggles on TV or radio very often, and when they do, it is at little length, and without much sympathy.
A union perspective on the NAB and media issues will be presented tonight at 7 pm at a forum entitled: "The NAB, Union Busting, Censorship & Labor" - a panel discussion to be held at the National Association of Letter Carriers Local 214, located at 214 12th Street, San Francisco. Speakers: Dick Meister, (Labor Journalist , & former KQED labor reporter), Norman Solomon (national and local media critic), Richard Edmondson (SF Liberation Radio), Janine Jackson (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting-FAIR and their radio show "Counterspin"), and Bill Fiore (IFPTE Local 21 and Bay Area Union News); discussion to follow. (For more information about this event call: Labor Video Project @ 415-282-1908.)
And on Saturday, September 23, union members will assemble between 2 and 4 pm with other concerned activists at UN Plaza to join in a rally (at 4 pm), march (at 5:30 pm), and concert (at 6:30 pm at Union Square) to punctuate their critique, delivered over the 4 days of NAB protest. They and others will put on display alternative opinions, poetry, drama, music and videos about what the airwaves hold for us now and what they could hold for us in the future. (For more information about this event call: Media Alliance @ 415-546-6334 x 301.)
The Labor Action Resolution on NAB is endorsed by numberous Bay Area and National Labor Unions and criticizes the NAB for its influence over Congress and the subsequent concentration of owneship of broadcast licenses into fewer and fewer hands; excoriates the NAB over its opposition to the FCC's recent creation of a Low Power FM Service; and notes that NAB's undue influence and dominance over the public airwaves thus undermines the freedom of speech of workers and other average citizens, and constitutes a violation of the human right to receive and impart information (under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).