Resolution on Collective Bargaining in the Public Sector

Both in spirit and in practice, religious commandments in the Torah and Talmud relating to the employment of workers are imbued with respect for labor rights. Jewish religious laws pre-date current secular labor laws by thousands of years. .
The American Jewish community has been supportive of worker and trade union rights for over a century. During the years of mass-immigration from the early 1880s to the second decade of the 20th Century, when American Jewry was a predominantly working-class community, the majority toiled in difficult and often desperate conditions in the garment industry and a range of other trades. The Jewish labor movement and the larger labor movement were essential to the success and advancement of American Jewry.
In recent years, there have been significant efforts to eliminate or substantially narrow collective bargaining rights throughout the United States at local, state and national levels. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, in 2011 there was an eight-fold increase in the number of states seeking to restrict or eliminate collective bargaining rights of public workers. 550 bills involving public sector unions and employees, including teachers, police and firefighters have been introduced.
The right to collective bargaining in the United States is the law of the land for the private sector, based on the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. It protects the right of employees in the private sector to form and join unions and requires that employers bargain collectively with the union chosen by its employees. Collective bargaining is considered a universal human right under Article 23 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Public sector collective bargaining entered into American law in 1959, when Wisconsin became the first state to protect public employees’ collective bargaining rights. Today, almost all states require or permit collective bargaining. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order to grant many federal government employees the right to unionize and collectively bargain with departments and agencies. American Catholic Bishops, in response to the recent attacks on the collective bargaining rights of public servants, have declared official support for the “principles of justice” that these rights represent. “These are not just political conflicts or economic choices; they are moral choices with enormous human dimensions,” stated Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

The JCPA believes that:
· Collective bargaining plays a major role in reducing income inequalities.
· The right to collective bargaining in the public sector should be preserved or returned throughout the United States.
· Collective bargaining is a crucial way to improve the relationship between employees and employers, and promotes fairness and democracy in the workplace.
· Collective bargaining, by improving the wages and working conditions of public sector employees, has allowed public employers to attract and retain higher quality workers who provide better services to the public.
· Collective bargaining rights in the private and public sector are inextricably related so that weakening the rights in one has a negative effect on wage and benefit standards in the other as well.
· Focusing on unions and eliminating or diminishing public employee bargaining rights will not solve the complicated fiscal problems of governments. While collective bargaining does not guarantee outcomes, the absence of public unions does not ensure deficit reductions.
The community relations field should:
· Support collective bargaining, work in coalitions, and articulate Jewish perspectives in favor of collective bargaining by all employees, be they public or private.
· Vigorously work with members of Congress and members of state legislatures and local governments to resist all efforts (legislative, ballot initiatives, etc.) to undermine or eliminate the right of public employees to engage in collective bargaining.

For more than a decade now, the Jewish Labor Committee has organized local Labor Seders across the United States to bring leaders of the trade union movement and leaders of the organized Jewish community together to “break matza,” explore the story of the ancient Israelites from bondage to freedom, and also examine contemporary efforts to secure dignity and security for working men and women, their families and communities. Most of these Labor Seders use a specially-prepared Jewish Labor Committee Passover Haggadah, now in its fifth edition.
Copies of these are available – at a special price of $7 apiece plus shipping / handling, and $5 apiece plus s/h for ten or more. Send your order with your complete name and address – and the mailing address if different – to us at JLCHaggadah@jewishlabor.org

With descriptions of the occupations of Tamudic-era rabbis, with quotations from Samuel Gompers, Berl Katznelson, Philo, Cesar Chavez, Harold Schulweis, Yariv Ben Aharon, David Dubinsky, Albert Memmi, Hanoch of Alexandria, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Rose Schneiderman, Sidney Hillman, Michael Walzer, Naamah Kelman, Ludwig Lewisohn, Martin Luther King, Jr., Louis Brandeis, Frederick Douglass, Martin Niemoller, Hillel the Elder, Haim Simon, Desmond Tutu, Michael Perry, Ira Eisenstein, Franz Rosenzweig, and Abraham Lincoln, and the poetry of Woody Guthrie and Morris Rosenfeld ... the JLC Passover Haggadah is a unique addition to any Passover Seder, and any Haggadah collection!

This year, we’ve organized and partnering with others in organizing Labor Seders that have already taken place in New York NY, Washington DC, West Orange NJ, and Dorchester MA.
We’re also holding Labor Seders in Philadelphia PA, St. Louis MO, Madison WI and Houston TX. The Philadelphia Labor Seder will take place April 11th at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel - contact person is Michael Hersch PhiladelphiaJLC@jewishlabor.org; the St. Louis Labor Seder will take place April 12th - contact person is Arlene Baer abaer@jcrcstl.org; the Madison Labor Seder will take place April 14th—contact person is Rabbi Renee Bauer director@workerjustice.org and the Houston Labor Seder will take place April 18th - contact person is Richard Shaw shawtrek@aol.com

If you would like to work with us on organizing a Labor Seder in your community, just write to us at info@jewishlabor.org

Photo by John Clifford, Local 600, Cinematographers Guild, IATSE

(Remarks delivered on Thursday, January 12, 2012, in New York)

As President of the Jewish Labor Committee, let me welcome you to our 41st Human Rights Award Dinner.

This is the one evening each year that we set aside to recognize and express our appreciation to a select group of leaders who have demonstrated a unique commitment to the values the JLC has stood for 77 years … Jewish values which continue to guide us today:
• a commitment to human rights;
• a commitment to economic justice – both on the job and in the community;
• and a commitment to tolerance and diversity: to racial diversity, religious diversity, diversity in sexual orientation, and language;
• a nation where all of us have a voice -- and all of us count.

Their life’s work -- their commitment -- gives living testament to the words of Isaiah when he called on all of us to, “Observe what is right and to do what is just.”

And observing what’s right and doing what’s just is the special mission of the JLC.
It’s the reason why, when some tried to brand Occupy Wall Street as an anti-Semitic mob, we stood up and told the truth: that it’s not the Occupy movement that’s anti-Semitic, it’s the right-wing hate machine and the corporations that fund it.
We all have a part to play in building this movement and, at the JLC, we’ll continue to do ours.
Observing what’s right and doing what’s just.
That’s why the JLC has been on point to educate and to mobilize Jewish organizations to win the strong labor laws working people want and desperately need.
Because, sisters and brothers, you and I both know that we can’t have a fair and decent and just society when only 11 percent of workers in this country have a union.
Wells-Fargo and J.P. Morgan-Chase and CitiGroup won’t rebuild the middle class, but a strong, growing labor movement will – and it’s time to turn the heat all the way up and fight for laws that will help make that happen.

Doing what’s just.
It’s the reason why the JLC went to work to mobilize Jewish opposition to Scott Walker’s union busting agenda in Wisconsin… it’s the reason we supported the campaign that overturned John Kasich’s assault on collective bargaining in Ohio … it’s the reason we’re opposing Mitch Daniels drive for right-to-work in Indiana … and it’s the reason why we’re helping to organize New Jersey’s Jewish community to help fight Chris Christie’s anti-labor jihad in New Jersey.
All of us know that Chris Christie has an insatiable appetite for union busting – and in 2012 we are going to put him on a diet!

Observing what’s right and doing what’s just.

And that doesn’t end with standing up for Jewish values here at home, but around the world -- and nowhere is that more urgent than in the Middle East.
Together with our allies overseas, the JLC is pushing back against a well-orchestrated campaign to demonize Israel as an apartheid state.
This is not a disagreement with certain Israeli policies, something that is quite legitimate.
Rather, it’s a campaign whose end goal is to undermine the very idea of a Jewish state. And they’ve made some headway in doing that.
Yet, while unions in some countries bought into that new twist on what is still anti-Semitism, I’m proud to tell you that, here in America, not a single union has!
And thanks to some of the people at this table and in this room they never will!
But not all of the threats facing Israel today are coming from outside its borders. Some are home grown.
We’ve all been thrilled by the winds of change in the Middle East.
Still, with this change we’ve also seen new expressions of contempt for Israel within the Arab world.
It’s a contempt that’s rooted, in no small part, in the conviction that Israel will never accept the right of the Palestinians to an independent state.
And, sadly, Israel is cursed with a right-wing coalition government that’s regularly giving credence to it.
We all know Benjamin Netanyahu talks a good game about a two-state solution, but, at the very same time, his administration continues to shamelessly promote the construction of illegal settlements on the West Bank – a policy that no severely impedes negotiations.
It’s like an employer who comes to the bargaining table telling us he wants a contract that’s a win-win for both sides while, at the same time, he has his lawyers working on decertification petitions.
The upshot is that Hamas – a terrorist organization that murders Israeli men, women and children and Palestinians -- is winning new support and, as they do, moderates who were once ready to negotiate peace are backing away and trying to sound as tough as the terrorists.
The truth is that if Netanyahu doesn’t negotiate with Palestinian moderates today, there simply won’t be any moderates left to negotiate with tomorrow.
That’s why it’s time all of us – Jew and non-Jew – send a message to Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition that the only path to peace is through good faith negotiations with the Palestinians.
There’s nothing anti-Israel about being pro-peace and looking for a settlement worked out fairly by both sides.

We all understand that, and I’ll tell you someone else who does: President Barack Obama.
That’s why Netanyahu’s right-wing supporters in this country have pulled out the stops to slander the president as some kind of enemy of Israel.
They hope that if they repeat that lie long and loud enough that some Jews might actually fall for it … enough, maybe, to flip Florida against President Obama this fall.
Who would they replace him with? Maybe a guy like Rick Santorum – a man who said that allowing Palestinians to have their own country on the West Bank would be like the U.S. giving Texas back to Mexico.
[Which, come to think of it, may not be that bad of an idea.]

Now, the JLC is barred from getting involved in elections, but we are not barred from telling the truth, and, as I see it, the truth is that Israel has no stronger friends in this country today than Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton – and the Jewish community in Florida – and across America – need to understand it.

It’s about observing what’s right and doing’s what’s just.
For 77 years that’s been the vision that’s guided the JLC.
From its fight against the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s … through its battles against segregation in the ‘50s and ‘60s… to its work for strong labor laws and a secure Israel today ... the JLC of 2012 remains what it always has been: labor’s voice in the Jewish community and a uniquely Jewish voice in the House of Labor.
• a voice for human rights;
• a voice for economic justice;
• a voice for freedom;
• and a voice for peace.
•
And, speaking for the JLC, we are honored by the support you’re giving us so we can continue to speak out so we can be heard loud and clear in the months and years to come.
Thank you.

Today, Dr. King’s close bond with the Jewish community is treated only as a small footnote of his life and work. But, toward the end of his life, Dr. King devoted significant time and energy to strengthening what were becoming increasingly strained ties between black Americans and U.S. Jews. One issue Dr. King was particularly concerned with was the growing mischaracterization of Zionism as racism.

Dr. King spoke and wrote often about Israel. However, the true depth of Dr. King’s commitment to Israel was readily apparent in a September, 1967 letter he sent to Adolph Held, then president of the organization I now lead, the Jewish Labor Committee. Dr. King wrote Held after the Jewish leader contacted him regarding press accounts of a conference that Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference participated in. At the meeting, strongly worded resolutions blasting Zionism and embracing the position of the Arab powers had been considered.

Understanding Held’s worries, Dr. King explained that, beyond offering opening remarks, he had no part in the conference. But, Dr. King said, had he been present during the discussion of the resolutions “I would have made it crystal clear that I could not have supported any resolution calling for black separatism or calling for a condemnation of Israel and an unqualified endorsement of the policy of the Arab powers.”

Referring to the stake U.S. oil companies have in the Middle East, Dr. King went on to note that “some Arab feudal rulers are no less concerned for oil wealth and neglect the plight of their own peoples. The solution will have to be found in statesmanship by Israel and progressive Arab forces who in concert with the great powers recognize fair and peaceful solutions are the concern of all humanity and must be found.”

Were Dr. King’s comments to Held intended only to soothe a miffed supporter? Hardly. In a March 25, 1968 speech to the Rabbinical Assembly, Dr. King said: “peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.” Less than two weeks later, on April 4, Dr. King was murdered while organizing support for striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

We can only speculate how, had he lived, Dr. King might have helped heal the divisions between Jews and African-Americans - or even the contributions he could have made toward achieving Middle East peace. What we do know is that Dr. King’s vision of a secure Israel and a peaceful Middle East is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s. We know something else, too: that it’s up to each of us to help make it a reality. For American Jews, maybe that’s what this Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is really all about.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Jewish Labor Committee, is President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, UFCW.

Thursday, January 12, 2012
Reception 6:00 p.m. - Dinner 7:00 p.m.
Hilton New York
1335 Avenue of the Americas (at 53rd Street)
New York City

Make your reservations now. Click here.

Just fill in the RSVP form, print it out, and either send it back to us via fax — 212-477-1918 — as an email attachment to dinner@jewishlabor.org, or by mail to
Jewish Labor Committee – 50 Broadway Suite 1600 – New York NY 10004
You may also make your reservation by phone, using a credit card, by calling us at 212-477-0755.

]]>


HONORARY CO-CHAIRS

Dr. Conrad Giles
Chair, Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Joseph T. Hansen
Chair, Change to Win/International President, United Food and Commercial Workers

Professor Richard Stone
Chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

HONORARY DINNER COMMITTEE

Vincent Alvarez
President, New York City Central Labor Council

Theodore M. Bikel
President, Associated Actors and Artistes of America

R. Thomas Buffenbarger
International President, International Association of Machinists

James J. Claffey, Jr.
President, Local 1, I.A.T.S.E.

Larry Cohen
President, Communications Workers of America

Rabbi Stephen Gutow
President and CEO, Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Mary Kay Henry
President, Service Employees International Union

Edwin D. Hill
International President, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Malcolm I. Hoenlein
Executive Vice Chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

James P. Hoffa
General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Frank Hurt
International President, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers

Richard C. Iannuzzi
President, New York State United Teachers

Alan S. Jaffe
President, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York

Bruce McIver
President, League of Voluntary Hospitals & Homes of New York

Terrence Melvin
Secretary-Treasurer, New York State AFL-CIO

Rabbi Michael S. Miller
Executive Vice President & CEO, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York

Joseph J. Nigro
General President, Sheet Metal Workers International Association

Bruce S. Raynor
President, Sidney Hillman Foundation/President Emeritus, Workers United

Roberta Reardon
National President, AFTRA

Cecil E. Roberts
International President, United Mine Workers of America

Andrew Stern
Senior Fellow, Richman Center, Columbia University/President Emeritus, SEIU

Baldemar Velasquez
President, Farm Labor Organizing Committee

Randi Weingarten
President, American Federation of Teachers

John W. Wilhelm
President, UNITE HERE

Thomas Woodruff
Executive Director, Change to Win Strategic Organizing Center/International Executive Vice President, SEIU

The JLC delegation included (r-l): Executive Director Martin Schwartz {holding one edge of the banner}, Adelphi University Professor Leigh Benin, Associate Director Arieh Lebowitz, Robert Schwartz, Intern Brett Goldman, and Bennett Muraskin, a union representative for New Jersey college professors. Other JLC activists, from unions including the Communications Workers, the Electrical Workers, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the United Federation of Teachers, marched with their respective unions. They and others joined our delegation at Union Square.

(Thursday, Dec 1, 2011) New York - JLC marched this afternoon and stayed into the evening at the “March for Jobs and Economic Fairness,” called by the New York City Central Labor Council, that according to one report transformed Broadway into “a sea of union workers.” The march began near Greeley Square and went straight down to Union Square, fifteen blocks south.

Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union – who is also President of the Jewish Labor Committee – is committed to passage of the Fair Wages for New Yorkers legislation, as well as the larger campaign for jobs and economic fairness in workplaces across North America.
Talking about the current economic situation in the U.S., Appelbaum noted that "forty-four percent of all income goes to one percent of the population, and everybody else is struggling just to survive."

Vincent Alvarez, President of the New York City Central Labor Council, noted that "all of us are out here to collectively say that enough is enough. It's time that government and corporate America address issues which are going to lead to a broad-based economic prosperity and address the fundamental problem that we see today, which is the lack of jobs."

(Thursday, October 27, 2011) Philadelphia -- Philadelphia Jewish Labor Committee (PJLC) Chair Jeff Hornstein, Pennsylvania State Education State Education Association (PSEA) President Mike Crossey, State Senator Daylin Leach and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) Communications Director Barbara Goodman spoke at PJLC's "Public School `Choice': Vouchers and the Risk to Public Education" program. Over 30 people attended the event, the first in our new Jewish Labor Series. Upcoming programs will include discussions on local, national and international issues, such as the Privatization of Liquor Licenses, Immigration reform, and Labor in Israel. For more details, write Philadelphia JLC Regional Director Michael Hersch at PhiladelphiaJLC@jewishlabor.org.

(Wednesday, October 5, 2011) New York -- The Jewish Labor Committee today issued the following statement in support of the Occupy Wall Street protestors:

The Jewish Labor Committee supports the activists in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and their message – that it is time for our elected officials to represent the 99% of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet in this difficult economy. This message is being heard not only on Wall Street, but on Main Streets across America. Through the recent actions on and near Wall Street, and the actions of labor, religious and community organizations such as the Jewish Labor Committee, in solidarity with those who are "occupying" Wall Street, this message will increasingly be heard and felt in the halls of Congress and in state and municipal governments around the country.

For too long, we have seen the income gap between the top 1% in the United States and the bottom 99% widen. We have raised our voices against policies at the state and national level that weaken and eliminate programs to help working families and the poor, yet continue to benefit the extremely wealthy in our society. We have called on politicians and the media to stop laying the blame on our teachers, public servants and working men and women and asking them to make sacrifices while tax breaks for millionaires and large corporations go unabated.

For these reasons, we are proud today to participate in the March on Wall Street in support the Occupy Wall Street activists, and call on our members, activists and our colleagues in the Jewish community and the labor movement to support similar actions across the country.

[r-l]: Jewish Labor Committee Western Region's President Floyd Glen-Lambert, JLCWR Secretary Jocelyn Sherman, and JLCWR Executive Director Leslie Gersicoff march in a candlelight vigil in support of UFCW grocery workers.

(Tuesday, September 20, 2011) Los Angeles – The Jewish Labor Committee Western Region [JLCWR] welcomed the announcement made yesterday that over 60,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union working at Ralphs (Kroger), Vons (Safeway) and Albertsons (Supervalu) in Southern California reached a tentative agreement with the companies. The Jewish Labor Committee Western Region has been supporting the grocery workers for many years, from participating in pickets and rallies in support of decent contracts, to “adopting” the workers at two Pavilions' stores, one in Beverly Hills, one in Sherman Oaks.

JLCWR members and staff participated in the most recent vigil in support of these workers, which took place Sunday evening, beginning at the Pavilions store in Beverly Hills, and continuing on to the Ralphs in West Los Angeles.

Jewish Labor Committee Western Region President Floyd Glen-Lambert spoke to Sunday evening’s crowd, referring to a passage in the Torah that workers must be treated with dignity and paid fairly and on time. Workers in the streets responded with cheers. Also speaking at the rally were Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo, Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz, Los Angeles Controller Wendy Greuel, California State Representative Bob Blumenfield, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice - Los Angeles Executive Director Rabbi Jonathan Klein and others. The JLCWR delegation, organized by JLC Western Region Executive Director Leslie Gersicoff, included regional Vice President Jerry Levey and members-at-large.

Upon learning that a tentative agreement had been reached, subject to approval of the grocery workers, JLCWR Executive Director Gersicoff said that she “congratulates these courageous workers for standing together through the toughest test of union solidarity.”

(September 11, 2011) Philadelphia - Michael Hersch [holding placard], Philadelphia JLC Director, on picket line outside Verizon Store at 17th and Market in Philadelphia. Forty-five thousand Verizon employees were on strike for nearly two weeks in August because despite earning $19,000,000,000 (that’s nineteen billion) in profits over the last four years, Verizon management wanted to take away overtime pay, benefits, pensions, and holidays including Veteran's Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Strikes were held in cities around the U.S. and coordinated by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). In the Northeast, this included CWA Districts 2-13. The strikes and comunity support resulted in a return to the negotiating table.

September 9, 2011: The Jewish Labor Committee today announced its support for the thousands of Hyatt Hotel workers who went on strike yesterday in four cities across the United States: Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The week-long strike was called by their union, UNITE HERE, to draw attention to the abusive treatment of the housekeeping staff. According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, of 50 hotel properties from five different hotel chains, Hyatt housekeepers had the highest injury rate of all housekeepers studied when compared by hotel company. The Hyatt Hotel Company has also replaced career housekeepers with subcontracted temporary workers earning minimum wage in several of its hotels.

“The Jewish Labor Committee is proud to have stood with Hyatt workers since the company fired nearly its entire housekeeping staff in three of its non-union hotels in Boston two years ago,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of the JLC stated. “Many of them had worked for decades. They were all replaced with temporary workers, who were paid poverty wages with no benefits. Our New England Region mobilized into action, organizing rabbis and Jewish organizations to support the boycott of the three Boston Hyatt-owned hotels. Since then, we have actively participated in the national campaign Justice at Hyatt which has engaged hundreds of Rabbis around the country to support the Hyatt workers."

“We join these hardworking workers as they stand up for decent jobs for themselves and their families, and the right to take a stand with other Hyatt workers against an abusive employer that is destroying good jobs in their North American hotels.” The JLC president concluded, “the people who clean, staff and help make Hyatt Hotels successful are simply seeking protections on the job. Of course we support them, and invite the community-at-large to do so as well.”

In the last few weeks, the Jewish Labor Committee has been reaching out to nearly a thousand rabbis across the United States. As we've done for quite some time, we are asking them to join a growing number of rabbis incorporating a message about the importance of workers rights in some meaningful way during Sabbath services between Labor Day weekend and Rosh Hashanah, which will begin the evening of September 28th.

The Sabbath Torah reading preceding Labor Day this year is known as Shoftim, Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9. While the word shoftim means judges, it has been interpreted to refer to the importance of justice. This reading contains the oft-quoted commandment, “Justice, justice shall you pursue …,” considered by many to be the bedrock of Jewish ethical teachings.

During this extended period of economic difficulties for many in our communities, we are focusing on the pursuit of a more just economy. The widening gap between rich and poor, deepening unemployment and the struggle of workers for a fairer, more just and more decent society must be a “Call to Action” as stated in Shoftim.

We’ve compiled some articles by rabbis that may be of interest in this regard: Click here to download this publication

There is a specific campaign for decency and dignity at the workplace that we are asking rabbis to support by "signing the pledge" at www.justiceathyatt.org. This campaign has to do with the situation at a number of Hyatt hotels.

Hundreds of rabbis and cantors in diverse communities have already demonstrated their concern for the workers of Hyatt hotels ever since August 2009, when all 98 housekeepers of the three Boston Hyatts were fired from jobs many had held for 20 to 25 years. Many workers had trained the new workers from an outsourcing company, having been told that these new workers would simply be their "vacation replacements." We have since learned that across the country, Hyatt has eliminated jobs, replaced career housekeepers with minimum wage temporary workers, and imposed dangerous workloads on those who remain.

Workers at 18 Hyatt properties across North America have called for boycotts. Quite a few rabbis are honoring those boycotts, and have pledged to treat the Hyatt as "not kosher" until it treats the company treats its workers with justice. By stating that Hyatt Hotels are not kosher, these rabbis are pronouncing the hotels "unfit" in an ethical and spiritual context and urging Jews to avoid contact with Hyatt.

Hyatt once had a very respectable reputation. We invite rabbis - and others! -- to read a report Open the Gates of Justice, that illustrates the way that Hyatt not only treated the Boston workers unjustly, but has a practice of oppressing its workers nationwide. Many rabbis and cantors took time out of their work and family lives to sit down with Hyatt workers, to hear their stories, and to document their own conclusions in this report.

The battle to secure justice for these hotel workers is far from over. You can make a difference. Please read this report. Please share it. Help us as the Jewish Labor Committee encourages rabbis and other Jewish communal figures to sign the pledge here. Help us invite Hyatt workers to speak to congregations across the country.

We look forward to working with rabbis and their congregations on this year’s “Labor on the Bimah” and at other times throughout the year.

August 22, 2011: A new grassroots movement is on the streets and boulevards of Israel. Tent communities have sprung up, and massive demonstrations are taking place not only in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but also in over a dozen smaller cities and communities across the State of Israel. The protests are against the high cost of housing, medical care and childcare, and against the increasing financial pressures on middle-class and working-class Israelis at a time when the Israeli economy is doing very well indeed.

The Jewish Labor Committee welcomes this new movement for social justice within Israel. We support the calls for “changing the rules of the game” in a country that is seeing the basic expenses of living going up and up, and the disparities between the very rich and everyone else increasing day by day. The calls of this new movement must be heard by the Netanyahu Government.

Impressive in a country with a multiplicity of political parties, ethnicities, and a range of social cleavages, this movement encompasses wide sectors of Israeli society rarely marching side-by-side in shared protest: secular and religious Jews, college students and retirees, political activists and those new to participating in a demonstration, parents with baby-strollers and municipal clerks.

But although this new Israeli movement has for the most part not done so, we at the Jewish Labor Committee cannot help but connect the issues it is raising with the expensive burden of the settlements in the West Bank, and the unresolved occupation of that territory. The political as well as financial necessity to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank has been clear to us for some time. Yet, in a cynical attempt to appease the unrest over the shortage of affordable housing and simultaneously satisfy the parties opposed to ending the occupation, the Israeli Government has authorized the construction of 277 new housing units in the West Bank community of Ariel, and 1,600 apartments in Ramat Shlomo, 930 housing units in Har Homa – the latter two being communities in disputed areas in East Jerusalem.

We agree with the many critics of such construction, in the U.S., Israel and the international community, that the expansion of these communities in Jerusalem and settlements in the West Bank is an obstacle to the much-needed resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The announcement of their authorization by the Netanyahu Government aggravates relations between Israel and its allies, as well as between Israel and the Palestinians. The expansion of Ramat Shlomo and Har Homa, only make a bad situation worse in terms of the challenge of Jerusalem. The cost of not only building the new housing units in Ariel but protecting the entire settlement enterprise in the West Bank is both a political and financial drain on Israeli society at a time when clearly a different path must be followed.

Government subsidization of housing for Israeli settlers in the West Bank has been a policy for decades, and did much to supplement the minority of Jewish settlers in the territories who moved there for political or ideological reasons with an influx of Israelis who just needed affordable housing. The continued subsidization of such communities to effect political “facts on the ground” must stop. The legitimate demands for decent, affordable housing within Israel must be addressed, but they cannot be dealt with by additional housing in East Jerusalem or settlements on the West Bank, which unnecessarily complicate the negotiations to end the occupation.

We do not believe that the “invisible hand” of the market can resolve this critical problem, and call on the Israeli Government to bring its precious resources “back home” where they are needed to build new and renovate existing housing within the Green Line.

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

August 16, 2011: Last week, we wrote to Verizon President & CEO Lloyd McAdam urging him to return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith for a fair settlement for the 45,000 brave Verizon workers who are on strike.

Many of you have asked us what you can do to help support the Verizon workers. In consultation with the Communications Workers of America, one of the two unions representing the Verizon workers, here are a few simple ways you can help:

Write your own letter to:
Mr. Lloyd C. McAdam
President & Chief Executive Officer
Verizon Communications, Inc.
140 West Street
New York, NY 10007

Be sure to mention if you are a Verizon customer.

Are you a Verizon customer? If so,
Call up the corporate headquarters – 212-395-1000 - and express your dissatisfaction. Tell them you are monitoring the situation closely and want it to be settled fairly.
If you have a pending service call or installation, insist that they send union labor to fulfill your order. If they send “replacement workers,” refuse to let the scabs enter your property and make sure the company knows why.

Donate to support the workers on strike: For the 45,000 Verizon workers, the decision to go on strike was a very difficult one for they knew they would be without a paycheck until their contract was settled. But they also knew that the issues were crucial, not just for them, but for working men and women across the country. You can show your support by making a contribution to the special fund set up to provide assistance to Verizon workers in need. Go to www.cwa-union.org/solidarityfund, contribute whatever you can, identify the organization as “Jewish Labor Committee” and check the box next to the statement, “This donation is on behalf of the organization listed above.”

Participate in a picket-line at a local Verizon Wireless Store: Can you give an hour or two to hand out leaflets in support of the Verizon workers in front of a Verizon Wireless store? To find a store near where you live or work, contact your local CWA or International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the other union representing Verizon workers, or go to the CWA web site. If you live in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago or Los Angeles, you can also contact our regional JLC office there:
Jewish Labor Committee – New England Region - Marya Axner (Boston)
Tel 617-227-0888 / Fax 617-482-7300 / email NewEnglandJLC@jewishlabor.org

United Hebrew Trades - New York Jewish Labor Committee - Carolyn De Paolo (NYC)
Tel 212-477-0767 email NewYorkJLC@aol.com

Jewish Labor Committee, Philadelphia - Michael Hersch
Tel 215-587-6822 / Cell: 215-668-5454 email PhiladelphiaJLC@jewishlabor.org

Jewish Labor Committee, Chicago - Eli Fishman
Tel 312-607-0260 email ChicagoJLC@yahoo.com

Jewish Labor Committee Western Region - Leslie Gersicoff (Los Angeles)
Tel 323-658-5500 Email JLCLA2@aol.com