(For more information, you can also read our response to the School’s FAQs here.)

Who is the BFS Union?
The BFS Union is composed of teachers, office workers, and cafeteria and maintenance staff at Brooklyn Friends School and was voted in on May 20, 2019 by an overwhelming majority. Unionization efforts were initiated by employees who make up a diverse cross-section of the school in terms of divisions, departments, positions, years at BFS, and identities. 

Why do we need a union?
Unions protect workers. Without a union, employers decide unilaterally on all terms and conditions of employment: what we will be paid, what our health benefits will be, when we get time off, whether we are retained, etc. With a union, the School must bargain in good faith with us over all of these conditions of our employment, and they cannot reduce our benefits or rights at work without our union’s agreement. This is particularly important during the pandemic when we are all the more concerned about job security and our health and safety.

Why did BFS employees unionize?
We unionized in May 2019 to ensure transparent procedures for evaluation and grievances, establish equitable hiring and termination protocols, demand equitable pay for all workers, and collaboratively make the school a stronger, more sustainable place for all. In the process of unionizing, there was much agreement that it was important to establish a wall-to-wall union that included faculty and staff so that we would be more unified and be able to more effectively support issues affecting different employees.

What does the petition that the School filed mean?
The Head of School and Board of Trustees are seeking to overturn our certified union. They are citing a recent anti-worker decision, made by the Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board that restricts the faculty at religious colleges from unionizing. If successful, our union would be decertified and future unionization would not be possible. The school is choosing to pursue this action, which would permanently remove our collective bargaining rights, threaten our job security during a pandemic, and intimidate colleagues from speaking up about workplace issues moving forward. 

Were the Union and the School making progress in contract negotiations?
Yes. Negotiations have been ongoing since December 2019. In light of the pandemic and economic uncertainty, the parties shifted to bargaining for a shorter one-year agreement which focused on establishing workplace rights (e.g., a grievance procedure) and would maintain the status quo on compensation. After the school year ended, there were frequent negotiations and we made substantial progress toward an agreement. In fact, there are only a handful of issues to be resolved. The School’s attorney acknowledged the progress we were making and even stated that, “this is exactly how negotiations are supposed to work.” We were therefore dismayed to find out that while we were negotiating in good faith, the School was planning to permanently divest us from our right to organize.

Does having a union legally prevent the school from speaking directly with workers?
No. Supervisors in unionized workplaces can always communicate with individual employees or hold staff meetings, and BFS has continued to communicate with employees since the union was established. However, with a union, a worker has the right to request union representation at meetings related to discipline or discharge. A unionized workplace means that management cannot unilaterally make changes to employment conditions without bargaining with union representatives. This allows for accountability, transparency, consistency, and fairness. The bottom line is that unions enhance communication between employees and the administration but put that communication on a more equal footing.

Is the union a “third party”?
The union is not a third party. We, the workers of Brooklyn Friends, are the union. We voted to unionize and elected our own bargaining committee of teachers and staff who meet with management to try to work out agreements on our behalf. Negotiated contracts must be ratified by union members. We are part of a larger Technical, Office and Professional Union, Local 2110 of the UAW, but we decide for ourselves on what action we take. Calling a union a “third party” is a well-known, standard anti-union tactic that way to dismiss employee concerns. It is patronizing rhetoric that treats workers as easily manipulable by ostensible outside forces and who are incapable of thinking or taking action for themselves. (For more information about union-busting tactics, you can check out this resource from CWA.)

Why the United Auto Workers?
The UAW is not just for auto workers! UAW Local 2110 is a strong local union that represents thousands of teachers and technical, office, and professional workers throughout the New York City area, including the administrative staff and teaching and research assistants of Columbia University, graduate teachers at New York University, the contingent faculty of Barnard College, and employees at BAM, the New Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, HarperCollins Publishers, the ACLU, and many more. The International UAW is one of the most powerful unions in the country and provides our local union with resources and expertise to assist in legal issues, organizing, civil rights, legislative action, and health and safety work. 

Are other schools unionized?
Yes! Virtually all public schools are unionized and more and more independent and charter school employees are unionizing. In New York City, some examples of unionized independent schools include Fieldston, LREI, Friends Seminary, Bank Street, and UNIS.

Are unions antithetical to Quakerism? 
Quakers value equality, integrity, and communal decision-making—all central to collective organizing. Bayard Rustin was a labor leader and a Quaker, Friends Seminary has had a faculty union for 40 years, and the American Friends Service Committee is unionized as well. You can read more about AFSC’s position on unions here. We believe that a union is the best means for a fair and democratic relationship between equal parties, aspiring towards the realization of the Quaker testimony of equality. 

How does the presence of a union affect the school’s ability to protect its financial health?
We all care deeply about Brooklyn Friends and its community. In negotiations, we bargain over what is fair and actually possible from a financial perspective. Unionization was driven in part to ensure the longevity of the school and the retention of incredible colleagues. We work at BFS, not to receive high salaries, but because we believe in the expressed values of the school. The presence of a union allows us to concentrate our full energies on doing our jobs effectively. The union ensures future equity and transparency, not only in terms of worker rights but also in terms of financial decisions made by this administration and future administrations.

Is it fair to insist the School bargain with the Union during the pandemic?
Now, more than ever, workers need to have the right to bargain, without fear of retaliation, over their conditions of employment. The importance of being able to bargain collectively over health and safety issues and job security during the pandemic cannot be underestimated. The School’s track record has already proved this to be a necessity. 

Over the summer, they brought maintenance workers back into the building without safety training or proper PPE. Until our union raised this in bargaining, the School ignored worker concerns.

The School has already implemented layoffs and reductions; it was through the efforts of union negotiations that we were able to secure severance and continued health coverage for affected workers. If our union were to be decertified, it is unclear if the School would be legally obligated to live up to its agreement on these. It also would mean that in the event of future layoffs, the terms would be fully determined by the School.

Lower School teachers have petitioned the School for a safer, remote opening to the school year. School leadership has already dismissed teacher concerns about overcrowded conditions and ventilation in the Pearl Street building. Without our union, we have no voice in working through these issues which affect workers and children.

Is the Union trying to prevent the School from re-opening in person?
Decisions about the reopening plan were largely made unilaterally by the School. 

The School and the Union did discuss the School’s wish to schedule additional professional development days. The Union agreed to these in principle but, before details could be hammered out, the School filed its petition to decertify the union.

The union also raised health and safety concerns, proposing that there be health and safety training for all staff and teachers, and that the School meet with us two weeks prior to re-opening to go over health and safety protocols. BFS rejected this proposal. 

Lower School teachers raised a concern about starting the School year in person, based on the large number of children that would be located in the Pearl Street building. Lower School teachers (with the support of our union) sent a letter to the Head of School and Lower School leadership asking for the same remote start as the Middle and Upper Schools. The Head of School responded by email, rejecting this proposal and stating that the administration had made its decision.