Last Monday, Sophie, a 30-year-old social worker in the Brooklyn Defender Services criminal defense unit, got a perplexing email from the group's executive director, Lisa Schreibersdorf.
Schreibersdorf wanted to meet with Sophie the following afternoon, just the two of them, to "run something by [her]," Sophie said. The social worker, who is using an alias out of concerns over professional reprisal, said in the three years she's worked at BDS, she's only spoken to Schreibersdorf about four times. "I was very taken aback by it. I don't know her very well," she said.
Sophie, who has been a shop steward in BDS's union since they signed their first contract in 2023, notified her union chair of the meeting ahead of time, just in case. But she wasn't expecting what would happen next. In a bizarre, 30-minute meeting on Tuesday, Sophie said Schreibersdorf sat her down, complimented her work ethic, then asked her to lead a charge to decertify the BDS union, Local 2325 UAW under the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, and start a new company-wide union with Schreibersdorf's support.
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