Interview by Meagan Day

The Brooklyn Academy of Music was founded in 1861 and has been continuously showcasing the performing arts at its location in the Fort Greene neighborhood since 1908. The institution has long been a leader in avant-garde cultural production, fostering radical artists from Philip Glass to Merce Cunningham. Now BAM may be about to do something else radical: unionize.

But the executive staff at BAM are pushing back. In documents shared with Jacobin, they assured workers that “we will do everything we can to make sure you have the information to make your own decision about the future relationship you want to see between BAM and its employees” — and then presented only the scariest “facts” about unionization they could find. For example, they emphasized that you can — theoretically — be fired for not paying union dues. Of course, in a nonunionized workplace, including BAM, you can already be fired for nearly any reason management decides.

Jacobin’s Meagan Day spoke with Kaitlyn Chandler, a video editor and motion designer who has worked at BAM for three-and-a-half years, about why BAM workers want to join United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110.