October 2, 2020

Dear Ms. Cáceres and the Board of Trustees of Brooklyn Friends School,

We, the Friends Seminary Teachers Association (FSTA), are writing to express our support for the Brooklyn Friends School Union and its affiliation with UAW Local 2110. We are shocked that you have moved to petition the National Labor Relations Board to decertify the BFS Union, and we ask you to reconsider this action.

All of us who work at Quaker schools aspire to the ideal of decision-making through unity even as we know that the hierarchical structures of our schools and the pressures of time make many other decision-making practices necessary—including collective bargaining.

Just as every Quaker school is different, so too is every union. Although the FSTA is not currently affiliated with a larger union, we trust that our colleagues at BFS have organized their union in a way most suitable for representing the workers at BFS. We reject the idea that there is anything inherently more or less Quakerly in our model of organization.

It is a willingness to embrace the challenges of collective bargaining that signals support for the Quaker value of listening for and regarding all voices. We, thus, urge you to reopen negotiations with the BFS Union.

Respectfully,
The Friends Seminary Teachers Association