BAM Is All About Worker Rights - Right?
NEW YORK, NY — The Brooklyn Academy of Music likes to portray itself as a bastion of social justice and democratic ideals, but it isn’t putting out the welcome mat for struggling workers striving to unionize. On the contrary, workers say the venerable arts & cultural institution in Downtown Brooklyn has spent the last two months assailing the merits of unionization and collective bargaining under a “cloak of neutrality.” “What has been frustrating about this particular response is that it hasn’t be blatant ‘captive audience sessions’ where it’s very clear what’s happening,” BAM staffer Emily Searles recently told LaborPress. “Management will send emails saying, ‘we just want you to know the facts.’ But they only highlight the negative possibilities of unionizing or misrepresenting what unions actually do for you — it’s still very one sided.” Searles and other BAM staffers fed up with what they view as a growing lack of transparency on the part of management, successfully filed union authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board designating UAW Local 2110 as their representative back in April. Since then, however, the organization that routinely features film series touting the importance of the American Labor Movement, has not only failed to voluntary recognize the union or sign a neutrality agreement — it has spent its time sending out emails to employees subtly warning them about the pitfalls of organizing collectively for better working conditions. In one such email sent out on April 26, BAM President Katy Clark pointed out that employees presently have the ability to “individually negotiate their salary.” “If the employees choose to be represented by a union, the union becomes the exclusive representative of the employees for the purpose of collectively bargaining wages and BAM cannot deal directly with members of the bargaining unit,” Clark wrote. “This means the ability of employees to negotiate a wage increase above “established minimums,” directly with BAM, is not automatic. Maintaining this ability is something that would have to be jointly agreed to in the collective bargaining process.” In an April 18, missive, Associate VP of Human Resources Seth Azizollahoff offered this tidbit, “A union shop union security clause requires every employee represented by the union to either join the union and pay full union dues or pay the high percentage of union dues required for union representation (explained below), to the union. If you don’t, the clause will say that the union can require the company to terminate your employment.” UAW Local 2110 President Maida Rosenstein called BAM’s behavior “shocking” and “a gross waste of resources”, especially for an “almost quasi-public institution” that gets a lot of city money…