Teachers At Blue Man Group-Founded School Are on Strike

May 27, 2022 10:03 AM

The Blue School teaches kids about labor unions and activism. But it won’t recognize its own union.
posted by Etrigan (30 comments total)

Yeah, I saw this mentioned somewhere a couple days ago, and I'm STILL trying to get some reasonable explanation as to why the Blue Man Group has a charter school.
posted by Naberius at 10:08 AM on May 27, 2022 [22 favorites]

Presumably, charter schools are a good money laundering vehicle for the same kinds of people for whom arts organizations are a good money laundering vehicle.
posted by Jon_Evil at 10:13 AM on May 27, 2022 [29 favorites]

The school is the latest in a growing list of outwardly progressive art museums, non-profits, and educational institutions to oppose unionization.

Indeed. As long as I can remember, progressive organizations have refused to let their staff unionize. Further, you may be surprised by the people who start spouting anti-union talking points - there was an extremely bitter campaign at a local nonprofit here a few years ago which completely split the radical community.

It was an extremely revealing situation because the main organizer was in fact an unappealing and manipulative person with whom many people had a bad history - so this was immediately spun into "he is a bad and manipulative person who has clearly manipulated all these people into asking for a union". Very, very few were the people who could bring themselves to say that a union is a union is a union even if you don't like the organizers and even if the organizers are objectively bad people. It was so weird to hear all these left wing people saying stuff like they supported unions, "just not this one", or that having a union would "make things adversarial" and it's like, do you even hear yourselves?
posted by Frowner at 10:16 AM on May 27, 2022 [25 favorites]

The school is the latest in a growing list of outwardly progressive art museums, non-profits, and educational institutions to oppose unionization.

Rich liberals are all bleeding hearts until the help gets tired of trying to pay their bills on empty, feel-good kumbaya bullshit

I don't know if I'll live to see it, but I hope we eventually get a broader base of leftists in this country that understand (again) that liberals are always, when the chips are down, just a facet of the enemy.
posted by ryanshepard at 10:28 AM on May 27, 2022 [16 favorites]

On Wednesday, SEIU Local 32BJ, a New York City-based union that is organizing fast food workers, exposed significant racial discrimination in job hiring for managerial positions at Chipotle Mexican Grills by using a bot to spam job applications and seeing which ones received a response from the company.

"You don’t see enough mad social scientists", to misquote Girl Genius.
posted by clew at 10:42 AM on May 27, 2022 [18 favorites]

I was not previously familiar with Blue Man Group and am possibly even more baffled than Naberius.
posted by Whale Oil at 10:55 AM on May 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

I've read more than a few stories about unions refusing to allow their support staff to unionize over the years, so this sort of story never surprises me as much as I wish it would.

My favourite bit of the article is where the school is all 'oh, this union drive was no good because it was too exclusionary.' I'm sure what they really meant was 'the employees who got excluded were the ones we figured would vote no' but there's just a little implication that they'd support a union as long as it included all instead of only some of their employees. Which, yeah, pull the other one.

One of my labour law professor's favourite classroom stories was about when he was doing paid work at a poverty law legal clinic while he was a student. The students in the workers' rights section decided to unionize the student workers. I don't think they got a huge amount of pushback, but given that they literally did outreach helping workers to organize in other locations, they didn't exactly get none, either.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:09 AM on May 27, 2022 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I saw this mentioned somewhere a couple days ago, and I'm STILL trying to get some reasonable explanation as to why the Blue Man Group has a charter school.

They don't. They have a PRIVATE school with $55,100 - $55,800 a year tuition.
posted by betweenthebars at 11:14 AM on May 27, 2022 [8 favorites]

Like when Nathan J Robinson didn't want Current Affairs staff to turn it into a co-op because he created it and didn't want to lose control. I mean, yeah, I get it dude but every small business asshole has literally exactly the same thought process. It is easier to run organisations with limited funding if your employees aren't unionised. Of course it is.

This is peak liberalism (as opposed to socialism).

If I can stereotype, liberals believe that capitalism is bad because capitalists are individually meanies. Socialists may organise around the theme of a particular shithead boss as a tactic but they don't generally believe that capitalism is bad because individual bosses need to be morally better and that Good Boss would solve the issues.

So when these wealthy liberals run institutions, they figure that of course their employees don't need unions since unions are to keep bad bosses in line and they know they're not a bad boss.
posted by atrazine at 11:25 AM on May 27, 2022 [25 favorites]

My kid goes to the school. I am baffled by the school’s actions and have repeatedly reached out to the administration about it. It simply makes no sense. Their arguments about the election are transparent BS — there is no mathematical way altering the electorate as they say they desire could have changed the outcome. Before the (one-day, pre announced) strike, the school sent an inflammatory email to parents dropping dark hints that a midday unannounced walkout was coming, basically saying “don’t worry, we won’t leave your little children alone in the classroom even if those nasty teachers walk out in the middle of the day.” Infuriating.
posted by bgribble at 11:27 AM on May 27, 2022 [19 favorites]

> I'm STILL trying to get some reasonable explanation as to why the Blue Man Group has a charter school.

It’s a private school, not a charter school.

My impression is that several members had young kids and some extra money, and creating a nonprofit to donate the money to seemed a reasonable thing to do. There is or was some overlap/revolving door between the entertainment part of Blue Man group and the school’s non-teaching staff.
posted by bgribble at 11:34 AM on May 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Their arguments about the election are transparent BS — there is no mathematical way altering the electorate as they say they desire could have changed the outcome

They likely wanted to hire a number of temporary teachers and grant them all votes, then challenge a number of the existing votes. But it's definitely bullshit either way.
posted by corb at 11:39 AM on May 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

These are the same people who completely trash the venues they perform in and maintain a crew to clean up after them because they certainly don't want to do it themselves, right?

Personally I am just shocked that their school treats workers poorly. Shocked.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 11:46 AM on May 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

That seems like an odd criticism. Do most performers clean up after their own performances? Past a certain low level of, like, open mic nights and community theatre, I would think not.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:51 AM on May 27, 2022 [17 favorites]

These are the same people who completely trash the venues they perform in and maintain a crew to clean up after them because they certainly don't want to do it themselves, right?

Did you actually watch the embedded video in your link? (Hint: skip to 4:10) Or is this just some pure old-fashioned trolling?
posted by mstokes650 at 12:01 PM on May 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

These are the same people who completely trash the venues they perform in and maintain a crew to clean up after them because they certainly don't want to do it themselves, right?

Why wouldn't they hire a crew to clean it up?
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:06 PM on May 27, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'm STILL trying to get some reasonable explanation as to why the Blue Man Group has a charter school.

I'm still not entirely convinced that the BMG aren't purple people eating space aliens.
posted by loquacious at 12:37 PM on May 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Wow. Nope, not a troll.

My first thought when I was taken to see them on a field trip in junior high was "wow this is the kind of mess you make only if you're not the one who has to clean up. It must really suck to clean up after this." As an adult, I have been employed by people to clean up their messes and the working conditions have been pretty terrible. So I am not surprised about the terrible working conditions at their school.

I apologize if anyone was upset by my opinion, I can certainly try to explain more if anyone else thinks that I am just a troll.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 1:11 PM on May 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

I mean, it's not really something you can single the BMG out for; pretty much no act, messy or not, cleans up after themselves.
posted by sagc at 1:13 PM on May 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

I mean am I weird for thinking that the mess that they make is probably a lot bigger and more difficult to clean up after than most acts? Sorry I can step out now. This thread is interesting, and I don't want to derail.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 1:17 PM on May 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Ya'll just skipping by bgribble who has an ACTUAL HUMAN IN THE VERY SCHOOL.

I demand more detail and gossip and everything
posted by zenon at 1:47 PM on May 27, 2022 [11 favorites]

As long as I can remember, progressive organizations have refused to let their staff unionize.
I don't think it's right for these organizations to oppose unionization, but I can personally attest to the fact that dealing with unions when you're on the other side can be a royal pain in the ass if there is an adversarial relationship between the company and the union (and by design, there typically is). I say this as a person that started at my company as a proud, dues-paying union member and who moved up into a company position that dealt directly with the union workforce on a daily basis. I hope to never, ever have to do that again.

I still fully support their right to have a union, and was 100% behind them when they went on a well-publicized strike late last year. I'm glad they got their pay increase and kept their free health insurance. I know their contract inside and out and always worked within its bounds. I didn't take grievances personally and made sure I was an honest participant in that process whenever it involved me (and shortly before I moved to the company role I was on the winning side of one for the union). Their union president is somebody who I have considered a personal friend for years. But I will never apply for another role that involves direct union engagement. So, while it's definitely not right for these places to oppose unionization, I kind of get it.
posted by TrialByMedia at 2:28 PM on May 27, 2022 [7 favorites]

if there is an adversarial relationship between the company and the union (and by design, there typically is)

I have no doubt that being in management and dealing with grievances stinks, but the relationship between a union and management doesn't have to be adversarial.

Negotiations can be collaborative, but when an employer marginalizes and ignores its workforce, hires an overpriced firm to aggressively fight unionization, and refuses to come to the table it goes a long way toward making things antagonistic from the jump. The school could have voluntarily recognized the shop and rolled their sleeves up to address workplace issues alongside them, but they didn't do that.

It sounds like the school really blue it. (Sorry. Somebody had to do it eventually.)
posted by evidenceofabsence at 3:02 PM on May 27, 2022 [5 favorites]

My dad's a union lawyer and a bad union could be worse than no union .. sometimes the poorly overseen union accountant runs off with two million dollars in pension money. You do want good leadership of your union. The shady union-busting tactics probably ain't it though.
posted by subdee at 4:10 PM on May 27, 2022 [5 favorites]

My partner and I were considering the Blue School early childhood program back in 2020 for our son. They rejected us but there were a couple of items in the process that made me glad we were declined. My son was in Early Intervention (EI) and I asked a question about EI services integrating with their program on the Blue School tour. The admissions director shut me down and implied that they don't support children with disabilities. My son doesn't have a disability and I wondered whether she knew/knows what EI actually is. We were fobbed off to an admissions assistance for the parent interview and I knew we were not getting in the school. They handled admissions for competitive early childhood in a way that made parents feel terrible which is not par for the top private schools programs. NYC private schools usually know they have the power but most are nice about it and mention how hard it is on NYC parents where we have 50 families competing for one spot. For a supposedly progressive school, it felt like they were super new and had no idea what they were doing and riding on their supposed progressive exclusivity. After we got rejected, the pandemic struck and I think all the parents they accepted lost their tuition and their children didn't get to go to Blue School in-person. We decided to keep our son home for the year and got into a great private preschool program nearby where they admit by lottery.
posted by ichimunki at 5:28 PM on May 27, 2022 [5 favorites]

Ben & Jerry's may have a reputation for being a liberal, progressive ice cream company, but they fought back against their employees' attempt to unionize just the same as any other corporation. And they aren't the only "socially responsible" company to do so.
posted by AlSweigart at 5:34 AM on May 28, 2022 [6 favorites]

For a long time I had a union job. The union was relatively recent, established in the mid-nineties. It took two campaigns and about ten years to get the union. Before the union, you could be a full time "temp" for years in the same job in the same department, no benefits, no raises - there was a whole temp agency that specialized in placing long-term temps here. The longest-serving temp on record was full time for eighteen years.

Up until about five years ago - that is', we'd fought it but we had not won until then - "professional" employees (non-union, higher paid) got six weeks of paid parental leave. Union staff got two. It was the considered opinion of this liberal institution that working class people simply did not need or deserve that extra month with their babies, unlike the affluent and educated.

During the pandemic, union staff were required to return to work regardless of whether it was safe and whether their jobs had to be public facing. Several union people died, including one whose manager (non-union) came in to work while positive, which he knew. Another woman had to quit because she was being forced back from remote work while her mother was dying of cancer. She asked to continue working remotely but they told her that if she didn't like it she could leave.

Union staff were routinely told during the pandemic that we were lucky just to have jobs, ungrateful, etc etc, by administrators who were permanently working from home. When it was contract negotiations, union staff wanted additional covid protections. The lead management negotiator remarked that she would probably be the last one back on site - she wanted to be really cautious because she did not want to get covid.

Really. They think we're stupid and lazy - except for the "good ones" who are stupid and industrious, of course. Without the union, we'd still have an army of temps and we'd have much lower wages like similar but non-union employers.

For the first part of my time here our leadership was pretty poor, IMO. But frankly we were better off with a badly led union than no union.

Our liberal employer hates the union and cuts union jobs (rearranging the work and replacing them with non-union jobs) every chance they get. The idea that employees are adversarial and this is somehow an equal-and-opposite conflict is ridiculous. Employees are adversarial because we weren't supposed to get equal parental leave, because our babies were literally treated as worth less than middle class babies. I will never forget that one so long as I live and I'll always side with the union.
posted by Frowner at 6:13 AM on May 28, 2022 [13 favorites]

And one more comment - they always go on about how we're "replaceable" unlike the precious, precious high-paid staff. If we're so replaceable, why couldn't we be out for six weeks for parental leave? If anyone can do our stupid little jobs, just stick "anyone" in there; you can absolutely hire temp into a union job under the contract in these situations.

But of course, the rhetoric of our stupidity, laziness and replaceability is just rheoric, designed to make us and the public think that we don't deserve decent wages and good benefits. That's why we need the union and we need precisely the kinds of hard-asses who can stand up for us.

I hate conflict. I'm bad at it. I was never on the negotiating team and would never have been any good at it. I love my job(s) and actually feel like I - no kids, relatively healthy, college educated - have been treated pretty well. It's what happens to my co-workers that steams me up.
posted by Frowner at 6:34 AM on May 28, 2022 [12 favorites]

It’s funny how even here, no one ever says “Bad management is worse than no management.”
posted by Etrigan at 6:55 AM on May 28, 2022 [6 favorites]

> It’s funny how even here, no one ever says “Bad management is worse than no management.”

If you trace back the Blue School union’s origins, it really started to come to be when the school’s longtime administrative leaders left and there was a series of caretaker temporary administrations. Management was bad — definitely worse than no management would have been.

Part of what’s so weird to me about the school’s anti-union stance is that the (new this year) head of school is smart and compassionate and seems to really want to build the school. Yet he parrots these fearmongering and disingenuous lines using words that came right out of the hired union-busting lawyer’s runbook.
posted by bgribble at 12:01 PM on May 28, 2022 [4 favorites]