Jewish Labor Committee

March 11, 2011 - The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) today denounced the decision by the Wisconsin State Legislature to strip public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights as an assault on all workers and the middle class. The JLC, the voice of the Jewish community with labor and the voice of labor in the Jewish community, firmly supports the fundamental right of workers, in the public and private sector, to join the union of their choice, and to have that union represent them in collective bargaining.

"This decision was motivated by politics alone, and not to address the state budget deficit," asserted Stuart Appelbaum, JLC National President. "The public sector unions in Wisconsin had already agreed to the concessions about their wages, pensions and contributions to health insurance that the Governor had demanded, but refused to negotiate. Taking away their right to negotiate is nothing more than an attempt to silence the public sector workers."

"We are deeply concerned about similar legislation that is making its way through the state legislatures in Ohio, where it passed the State Senate by one vote, Indiana, Idaho and other states across the country", he added. "Our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, who struggled in the last century so that working families could realize the American dream of economic security and prosperity, a decent life for all, would have some choice words in Yiddish for what is happening today. They would call it a shande -- a Jewish epithet for shameful, a disgrace, which is what it is."

"We are heartened by the huge numbers of people demonstrating in front of the state-houses across the country in defense of workers' rights, including members of the JLC. And we are heartened by the many voices speaking up in support of the right of collective bargaining, including many within the American Jewish Community."

"The American people know what is at stake and we call on all of our own members and all within the Jewish community, to stand now with public sector employees -- they are our teachers, firefighters and police officers. They make sure that the services we demand of our government are provided."

The Jewish Labor Committee, an independent secular organization, is the voice of the Jewish community in the labor movement and the voice of the labor movement in the Jewish community. The JLC enables the Jewish community and the trade union movement to work together on important issues of shared interest and concern, in pursuit of our shared commitment to economic and social justice.

Posted by Arieh Lebowitz at 05:57 PM | Permalink

by Stuart Appelbaum

March 7, 2011 - The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that took place in New York City a century ago is now being memorialized in programs across the country. It took that fire on March 25, 1911, and the deaths of 146 innocent garment workers -- mostly women, mostly Jewish, mostly immigrants -- to bring about meaningful safety regulations, and to respect the call of workers struggling to secure the benefits of union membership. Many of our grandparents and great-grandparents played a critical role in building a strong and vibrant labor movement with the hope that it would endure and remain a permanent feature of American life. Through their actions and their struggle, our lives and the lives of most Americans were made better. Today, those hard-fought gains are under threat in communities across the United States.

What has emerged in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and across America is an attack against working men and women in both the public and private sector. The targets are the public employees now, but their intention is to come after all unionized workers.

The federal government, using taxpayer money, bailed out the banks and saved Wall Street. Now, corporate leaders and the elected officials they support are saying thank you by demanding tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and budgets balanced on the backs of working people -- including many in the Jewish community. It's a perverse form of gratitude.

The budget deficits cited to rationalize the attacks on public service workers' collective bargaining rights are nothing more than a diversion: the real aim is to debilitate the labor movement state by state, for political, not economic, ends, and in doing so, curtail fundamental rights for all working people. That is why all of us need to speak up, now.

Fortunately, the latest opinion polls show that a vast majority of Americans continue to support the legal right of working people to be represented by the union of their choice, and to engage incollective bargaining. But as caring Jews, as thoughtful Americans, we must not become complacent -- we must continue to speak out against the Governor of Wisconsin and others of his ilk trying to dismantle the unions founded by our forefathers and foremothers and erode the workplace protections they fought so hard to achieve.

Many Jewish texts, from the Torah through the Talmud, deal specifically with the treatment of workers. The Torah urges "justice, justice, shall you pursue." There is, then, a deeply moral, historical and theological basis for our efforts to close the widening gap between the rich and poor, and to prevent growing economic instability that will be detrimental for all Americans. This demands that we strengthen, not weaken, private and public sector unions to ensure that current and aspiring middle class Americans attain a decent standard of living and greater economic security.

The history of the American Jewish community is one of upward mobility and expanding economic opportunity. But upward mobility and shared prosperity cannot be achieved by lowering job standards and pitting workers against each other -- which is what some would like to do. The artificial divisions that are part of the attack against organized labor must be challenged -- by unions and their community allies as well. The Jewish Labor Committee is proud of our work to bring the Jewish community and the labor movement together in common cause - and we invite you to join us. If not now, when?

Durable coalitions that include organized labor and the organized Jewish community need to support policies that will boost overall working conditions and lift up workers who are the least well-off. We know from our own experience that the middle class was built not by making jobs worse but making jobs better: unions fought hard to raise standards across industries and occupations, and we were all better off for it.

Remembering what Jews once did and continue to do for working people and for a strong American economy should make us hopeful about our ability to safeguard a society that promotes justice, and ensures equality and fairness for all.

It took that terrible fire a century ago to shock many into finally accepting the need for reform, and to defend the interests of workers. Solidarity with garment workers, and among workers of diverse kinds, became a daily bond that fortified our own communities. We must remember this today as we remember those who perished in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire 100 years ago, and now honor the courageous men and women of Wisconsin, and all working people whose basic rights are under attack.

Stuart Appelbaum is President of the Jewish Labor Committee and President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, UFCW.

Posted by Arieh Lebowitz at 03:47 PM | Permalink

by Steve Lipman
March 1, 2011 - The last few weeks have been rough for the union movement in the United States. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, ignited a major workers' protest when, in an effort to balance the budget, he moved to eliminate collective bargaining rights. And New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie, also a Republican, declaring that such bargaining rights "didn't come down from tablets on the top of the mountain," criticized his state's teachers' unions for "ruining our education system." Union leaders across the country declare the movement under attack.
For a Jewish take on this issue, The Jewish Week turned to Arieh Lebowitz, associate director of the Jewish Labor Committee, which calls itself "the voice of the Jewish community in the labor movement and the voice of the labor movement in the Jewish community."

Q: Are teachers protesting in Wisconsin a Jewish issue?

A: It's not just teachers -- public sector workers of diverse professions are protesting the threats to their collective bargaining rights. And private sector workers are protesting as well, in solidarity. Is it a Jewish issue? Yes. Not only out of self-interest -- a significant proportion of public sector employees, from educators to social workers to government employees of all sorts are Jews -- but primarily because our history in this country, and our longstanding commitment to workers rights as manifest in a strong labor movement are all of a piece.

Is this -- a climate of recession and economic cutbacks -- a bad time to be a union supporter?
On the contrary, it is a good time to be a union supporter. "¦ precisely the time when people committed to basic justice in the workplace have to speak out. Rabbis in Madison and elsewhere in Wisconsin have spoken out in defense of the workers under threat. Rabbis and congregation have been among those offering sanctuary to the Wisconsin senators who have left the state rather than be party to the governor's draconian restrictions on legal and internationally recognized labor rights.

Unlike the early days of unions, most union members today are not Jewish; many are minority group members. Do you find that most Jews are sympathetic to unions' concerns?
We've found that in terms of unions' basic concerns, many Jews are sympathetic. If the concerns of unions are represented by how union members vote, it's clear that Jews and union members have similar voting patterns. While there are fewer Jewish union members than six, seven or eight decades ago, there are still a significant number of staff people in unions, locally, regionally and nationally. And there's a new crop of explicitly Jewish social justice activists that sees in the labor movement a vehicle for tikkun olam [repairing the world].

What is the Jewish Labor Committee's role in the Wisconsin controversy or next door in New Jersey?
When a rabbi in Madison was approached by the labor movement to make a statement in support of the threatened workers, he reached out to us. We helped with relevant resource material. A JLC member who is an academic in Madison was one of the early demonstrators in the state capital. As a Jewish Labor Committee staff person, I was proud to rally in Trenton last week together with our executive director, Martin Schwartz, and the director and chair of our Los Angeles-based JLC Western region schlepped by bus to Madison to add their voices.

Union issues are seen as a secular issue. What does Jewish tradition say about the workers' treatment issues that unions raise?
There are passages in the Torah and the Talmud as well as responsa [rabbinic edicts] -- going back centuries and as recently as a few years ago -- that note that workers should be paid on time, that acknowledge that workers need to be treated respectfully by their employers, that they are allowed to join collectively to defend their basic interests, that they have the right to strike, to self-regulate prices so as not to have a situation where some workers undercut other workers.

This month we're commemorating the 100th anniversary of the fatal Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. What are the tragedy's contemporary lessons?
Synagogues and temples across New York -- and across the country -- are commemorating the fire by dedicating a Mourners' Kaddish to the memory of those women and men who died as a result of this disaster. The contemporary lesson is that we should not forget that workplaces are often dangerous places, from garment workers laboring in today's sweatshops in New York and Los Angeles and Bangladesh, to poultry workers in Iowa and restaurant workers closer to home preparing the food that we eat. They need decent working conditions, and decent pay and benefits. They deserve the benefits of union membership, today as a century ago.

Posted by Arieh Lebowitz at 03:47 PM | Permalink