PROTEST CALLED: Tuesday, November 9th at 11am in front of KPFA Radio, 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way in Berkeley (cross street University Avenue).

The Executive Director of Pacifica Radio today dismissed the entire staff of the KPFA Morning Show–Aimee Allison, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Laura Prives, and Esther Manilla–and ordered tomorrow’s program to be taken off the air, according to the KPFA News. John Hamilton’s abbreviated report is below. | SEE ALSO Brian Edwards-Tiekert’s report | David Bacon’s report | Esther Manilla interview on KPFA News | Aaron Glantz on Huffington Post

The move by Arlene Engelhardt casts into doubt the future of KPFA’s most popular locally produced program—as well as the station’s single biggest source of fund raising revenue.

Morning Show producer Esther Manilla is a shop steward with the KPFA staff union, CWA Local 9415. She says the staff of the KPFA Morning Show was told by KPFA’s interim general manager that their program tomorrow would be replaced by syndicated content from Pacifica station KPFK.

The layoffs came in spite of a proposal by the union representing KPFA’s paid staff for a “sustainable budget” that supporters say would have dramatically scaled back cuts to programs and staff at KPFA.

On Friday, the union filed an Unfair Labor Practices charge with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Pacifica management of unlawfully failing to consider the alternative to cuts.

KPFAworker.org is encouraging listeners to voice their feelings to Arlene Engelhardt. Her office number is (510) 849-2590, ext 208 and cell number is 510-402-9880.