US Quaker school disbands union
Over 1,000 sign petition amid claims that Brooklyn Friends school is betraying Quaker values
More than 1,000 parents and alumni have signed a petition urging a Quaker school in the US not to disband a staff union, amid claims that it is betraying its Quaker values. The row broke out after Brooklyn Friends, a private Quaker school in Brooklyn, sent out an email on 14 August telling parents that it was seeking to dissolve the faculty and staff members’ union in order to ‘fully practice our Quaker values of respecting others and celebrating every individual’s inner light’.
Some 130 teachers and staff members also signed their own petition. According to The New York Times, over eighty per cent of faculty and staff members voted to unionise with no objection from the school in early 2019. ‘Union representatives were at the table as contract talks began at the end of 2019 and in July of this year to negotiate the layoffs of approximately 30 teachers because of the Covid-19 pandemic,’ the paper reports. ‘Two weeks after those negotiations ended, teachers and staff members received notice on August 14 that the school was moving to dismantle the union. The administration said a union went against Quaker values, which emphasize direct communication and consensus.’
‘My son learned that organising was a laudable thing to do,’ one parent said. ‘Now I have to tell him that the school apparently didn’t mean it.’
Crissy Cáceres, the head of school and the board of trustees, defended the decision in a letter sent to the parents. It said that, while they recognised the action ‘may seem to contradict the [Quaker] history and culture of integrity and activism… Quaker values commit us to integrity, reflection, equality, peace, simplicity, community, and the profound process of Quaker decision making, which occurs through respectfully hearing each other’s voices while remaining in a space of openness.’
While the head is not a Quaker, half of the board of trustees must be Quaker and one of the two board chairs must be Quaker-appointed.
Comments
From Robert Renwick of Morningside Monthly Meeting NYC at 00:16 16 October, 2020 Following the teachers following through on a threat to strike, the school administration backed down. The union prevails and collective bargaining is to resume with a view to a contract stipulating working conditions, salaries, etc.
By Steven Willett on 16th October 2020 - 0:48
From Sally Campbell, also from Morningside Monthly meeting, NYC at 03:37 16 October, 2020 Well, almost. It is true that the request to decertify was withdrawn and the strike ended, but when and how any negotiations will begin is a real question. Terrible distrust on both sides. I love good news and report it whenever I can but unfortunately there is a lot of work to repair this terrible tear in the fabric of the school’s community.
By Steven Willett on 16th October 2020 - 4:54
From Friends Journal 16 October, 2020
https://www.friendsjournal.org/brooklyn-friends-school-withdraws-nlrb-petition-ending-strike/
On the evening of Wednesday, October 7, Crissy Cáceres, the head of Brooklyn Friends School (BFS) in Brooklyn, N.Y., announced that she and the Board of Trustees had agreed to withdraw their August 14 petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The BFS union immediately ended their strike and called on employees to return to work the following day, Thursday, October 8.
The August 14 petition had called for the NLRB to clarify if employees should continue to qualify for union representation at a Quaker school.
On September 21 the BFS Union voted 120 to 5 in favor of a strike if the petition was not withdrawn.
“The Head of School and Board of Trustees’ action in filing a petition to decertify our union, citing a Trump administration precedent, leaves us with no choice but to ensure the preservation of our democratic union rights,” read a September 17 note clarifying the strike authorization. “Over the past month, since the School’s petition was filed, we have made numerous attempts to persuade the Board and Head of School to change course.”
BFS employees and their supporters picketed in front of the school on October 5 and 6.
Three former clerks of the BFS Board of Trustees and members of Brooklyn Meeting—Nancy Black , Alice Pope and Benjamin Warnke—had been working to mediate the conflict. On September 25 they wrote to the current board:
It may be possible for the school to weather a strike in terms of finances and operations. However, there may be irrecoverable damage to relationships within the school community, to relationships between the school and the Quaker community, and to the school’s reputation. We fear that the school’s essential character—its Quaker culture—will be sacrificed if you do not act immediately to resolve the conflict with the union and avoid a strike.
In the October 7 announcement, Cáceres and the BFS Board agreed to “continue working towards a Collective Bargaining Agreement contract with the UAW [United Auto Workers Local 2110, which represents BFS employees] that will allow us to open the lines of communication with the purposes of providing better care for our colleagues. That was always our aim and is consistent with our Quaker practices.”
By Steven Willett on 28th October 2020 - 1:17
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