Lauren Kaori Gurley
On the Clock is Motherboard's reporting on the organized labor movement, gig work, automation, and the future of work.
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The Blue School’s tactics mirror an earlier effort to thwart unionization among its stagehands at a Las Vegas theater where the Blue Man Group performed in 2005. In a March 2022 letter leading up to the union ballot count, the school’s headmaster Noah Reinhardt accused the union of “improper electioneering” and objected to what he described as “the deliberate exclusion of colleagues who hadn’t yet begun at Blue School when the election was ordered.” “Because of this, if the election is certified, the school will decline to recognize the union if asked to do so and will exercise its right to appeal the outcome,” Reinhardt wrote. Last month, the National Labor Relations Board issued a bargaining order, notifying the school of its legal obligation to negotiate with the union over working conditions. So far, the school has refused to sit down at the bargaining table.