May Day in San Francisco
May Day festivities in San Francisco included a special picket of
Epstein, Becker & Green's offices. More than 100 people showed
up for this event, which started at 4:30 PM and lasted for one hour,
after which the group marched to Justice Herman Plaza to join the
Reclaim The Streets movement to Reclaim May Day that has seen
tremendous energy lately in San Francisco.
See SF May Day photos and reports at http://sf.indymedia.org/ .
Lunchtime pickets occur at the EB&G offices in SF every
Wednesday and Friday, from noon to 1 PM, 2 Embarcadero Center, Front
Street side, 2 1/2 blocks from the Embarcadero BART station.
Two events were visited on May 2nd by activists concerned with
the role of law firm Epstein, Becker & Green in the deepening
crisis at Pacifica Radio. EB&G hosts numerous events where staff
attorneys train other corporate lawyers and human resources staff
how to use bullying and scurrilous legal tactics to defeat and
oppress employees.
Among their professed areas of expertise are how to monitor
employee internet use and how to combat the use of email in union
organizing drives (EB&G is a cosponsor of the, First Annual Privacy and Data Protection Summit
), how to set up a defensible termination, how to deal with
the protections employees have against employer retaliation
following a complaint and many others.
As the pressure campaign to force the Pacifica board hijackers
heats up this Spring, it is very likely that many more of EB&G's
public events will be visited similarly with a message of discontent
with the role of John Murdock and EB&G in the attempted
destruction of Pacifica. EB&G's upcoming events can be viewed at
http://www.ebglaw.com/upcoming_events.htm .
Links to reports of previous EB&G protests and to the
"EB&G-John Murdock Protest Kit" are below.
Los Angeles
This morning, a supporter of the Pacifica Campaign brought the
message of free speech to an Epstein Becker & Green Employment
Law Seminar entitled, "How to Measure Employee Performance and
Implement Effective Discipline." The lone leafletter burst into the
small seminar room at the Los Angeles Marriott Downtown, interrupted
the proceedings and described the leadership of EB&G and
Attorney John Murdock in the attempted destruction of the Pacifica
Foundation and the Pacifica Radio Network. The 20 attendees seemed
receptive to the change in pace, as the interloper moved about the
room distributing Pacifica Campaign flyers that call for the removal
from the Pacifica Board of EB&G attorney John Murdock, CB
Richard Ellis Vice President Micheal (sic) Palmer and others. The
EB&G Attorney raced around the room grabbing the flyers from the
tables. The Pacifica Campaign supporter pointed out to the attendees
that the EB&G attorney was censoring them, announced the
pacificacampaign.org website where they could get the information,
and left the room.
New Jersey
On Wednesday May 2, two well-dressed unidentified concerned
friends (CF#1 and CF#2) registered to the Epstein Becker & Green
(EB&G) First "Wednesdays Breakfast Briefing" to EB&G clients
on Labor Law and Employment Issues. The event took place at the
Newark Club atop Seton Hall University in Newark NJ. EB&G
attorney Robert Bernstein hosting the seminar discussed recent case
law concerning companies having forced job applicants and employees
to sign a consent agreement to arbitration for discrimination
claims. Att. Bernstein represented the usual jury trial as
unreliable, lengthy and costly, proposing the federal or state
arbitrations as more employer friendly. At this point CF#1 asked
whether att. Bernstein recommendation of a panel judge trial would
lead employees to feel they were being denied a jury trial and att.
Bernstein said that there were ways to make the concept more
acceptable to employees. The attendees then discussed strategies on
how best to get employees to sign such consentagreements, which were
viewed as human resources tools to prevent expensive and punitive
litigations. CF#1 asked whether mandating arbitration on an
application form might be seen as a coercive practice. At this point
CF#2 stated that he wished to give the "employee" viewpoint on the
issue of unfair labor practices. He proceeded to speak about WBAI
radio and how Epstein, Becker & Green had been involved in
imposing a gag order and firing producers and staff... Att.
Bernstein interrupted CF#2 statement on 3 occasions. Then CF#1 stood
up and stated vigorously that the attendees should hear CF#2's
statement which represented personal experience but att. Bernstein
refused to comply and said that this was a disruption. CF#1 then
said that there were not only labor issues in this world but that
freedom of speech and civil society were important things to
preserve and that EB&G was involved in the destruction of a
listener sponsored community radio. But since there was no desire to
inform about the truth, we would leave leaflets (the CF info sheet)
and brochures (the Pacifica Campaign brochure)for all to make up
their mind. CF#1 distributed the literature to all attended and the
mysterious CF departed.
For more info, call 646-230-9588
Previous protests
http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2003
http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2284
http://www.radio4all.org/freepacifica/murdock/feb2/feb2photos.asp
http://www.radio4all.org/fp/endgame/0119ebg-sf.asp
http://www.radio4all.org/fp/endgame/0123ebgsf_cd.asp
http://www.freekpfk.net/EBGDemoLA.asp
http://www.media-alliance.org/pacifica/index.asp
Protest Kit
http://www.radio4all.org/freepacifica/murdock/index.asp
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