BFS Union
Support the workers at Brooklyn Friends School
UPDATE: 3/19/21 CONTRACT IS RATIFIED
We are pleased to report that the union membership has ratified our first union contract!
UPDATE: 10/7/20 OUR STRIKE IS OVER
The School just contacted us and said they will withdraw the petition first thing tomorrow morning if we end the strike. We agreed. Tomorrow, school will open at the regular time. Everyone should return to work.
Dear Brooklyn Friends Families,
BFS teachers, office staff, cafeteria and maintenance workers were shocked to receive the news (on Friday, August 14, 2020) that Crissy and the Board of Trustees are seeking to dismantle our union and to permanently deny us the right to organize as employees of BFS.
We realize that many of you might not be aware that the union represents so many BFS workers. Having a comprehensive union that represented as many members of BFS was a priority, reflecting the Quaker values of community and equality. In May 2019, the union was voted in by a vast majority. Since then, a negotiating committee was elected and worked to negotiate a first contract–even agreeing, in light of the pandemic, to pivot to a simplified one-year contract. Several weeks ago, the union negotiated around the clock to ensure severance packages, recall rights and essential benefits for laid-off and reduced employees. The union held several information sessions for affected workers and our general membership, providing clarity, support, and information for our members as they navigated this difficult time. We are dismayed that at a moment when families and school employees all over the country are facing stress and uncertainty about returning to school, Crissy and the Board would seek to further disrupt our community and remove our protected labor rights.
We have sent the following letter to Crissy and the Board urging them to withdraw their petition and return to the bargaining table. Please support us by sending your own letters to Crissy (ccaceres@brooklynfriends.org) and the Board (bfsboard@brooklynfriends.org) to ask them to do the same. You can copy us at bfsunion@2110uaw.org.
Thank you for your support.
Members of the BFS Union (Local 2110 of the UAW)
The following letter was sent by the BFS Union to Crissy and the Board of Trustees on Monday, August 17, 2020
Dear Crissy and Members of the Board of Trustees,
We are writing as teachers, office workers, and cafeteria and maintenance staff to express our deep dismay about your petition to decertify our union. In 2019, when we petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to have a union election, the Board of Trustees wrote that it recognized our “democratic right to organize.” That you would now question that right based on a reactionary Trump-dominated Labor Board precedent is unconscionable. Standing behind a policy that unfairly restricts the rights of workers to unionize, serves to delegitimize the school’s legacy of integrity and social justice. At a time when our country is ravaged by a pandemic, jeopardizing lives and livelihoods, it is shameful and bewildering that BFS would attempt to destroy its own employees’ union rights.
In the last few weeks, our union worked incredibly hard to reach an agreement with the School over its stated need for layoffs and reductions. In good faith, we made painful compromises in the name of the survival of the School, not knowing that you were pursuing legal action to erode our ability to represent ourselves through collective bargaining. Contrary to what you stated in your letter to BFS colleagues and families, the union is not a “third party.” We are the union. We organized ourselves in order to effectively advocate for all of us to have workplace rights, fair pay, and healthy and safe working conditions.
For the good of the School, its relationship with its employees, and its standing in the broader community, we strongly urge you to withdraw your petition immediately and return promptly to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair contract.