Workers’ Rights Examined in Jewish-Muslim Text Study

Reflections on Our Text Study on Workers’ Rights

By JMCBI

Just before May Day, the traditional celebration of workers’ rights, we came together to explore what Jewish and Muslim traditions contribute to the current discussion on labor.

Sponsored by JCUA’s Jewish-Muslim Community Building Initiative, this text study featured Rabbi Victor Mirelman and Muslim chaplain Abbas Chinoy who facilitated the event on a rainy Sunday evening in the comfortable Dollop Café in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.

The need to contemplate labor issues has gained urgency around the Midwest. In Wisconsin, only a few months ago Gov. Scott Walker made it almost impossible for public employees to organize; and in Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is also changing the city’s relationship with its employees. It wasn’t even a month ago that Gov. Walker repealed the Equal Pay Enforcement Act that had offered legal avenues to fight wage discrimination based on race, age, disability, religion and sexual orientation.

Muslim chaplain Abbas Chinoy (at top, in photo at left); and Rabbi Victor Mirelman (in center of photo at right).

The evening began with this question: How have worker rights (or lack thereof) influenced peoples’ lives?

While one participant had very positive experiences with her union, another expressed her disappointment with the union of which she had been a member; she said she had been neither well informed or well cared for.

Chew by Choice: The Postville Raid and Magen Tzedek

Gadi Capela

By Gadi Capela
JCUA Rabbinic Fellow

On May 12, 2008, the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided AgriProcessors Inc., the kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa.  Nearly 400 undocumented immigrant workers, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, were arrested in what became the largest raid of a workplace in U.S. history until then.

Most of those who were arrested were convicted for document fraud and identity theft. Correspondingly, several AgriProcessors employees and managers were convicted for conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants.

But there was more.

AgriProcessors Inc. (photo: The Gazette)

AgriProcessors was  paying substandard wages and offering minimal safety instruction and health care to its 800 employees, and was hurting the animals and the environment. As a result, the Conservative movement reacted with a new initiative called Magen Tzedek.

By invoking the verse from Deuteronomy, “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger,” Rabbi Morris Allen advocated for an ethical certification for kosher food in addition to the current kosher slaughtering certification.

Magen Tzedek was founded on the principle that we are what we eat. It is an ethical seal signifying that kosher food has been prepared with the highest standard of integrity and care, including employee wages and benefits, health and safety, animal welfare, corporate transparency and environmental impact.

Magen Tzedek demonstrates that ritual and ethical commandments have an equal place at our tables.

To learn more about Magen Tzedek, join us for lunch with Gadi Capela on Tuesday, July 5 at noon at the JCUA office, 610 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500. The event is free, but you need to RSVP on our website.

“Venceremos”: JCUA “Together in the Struggle” with Chicago Street Vendors

By Holly Krig
Community Initiatives Organizer, JCUA

This morning members of the Street Vendors Association (AVA, La Asociación de Vendedores Ambulantes), with the help of JCUA, organized a protest outside the municipal courts, 400 W Superior, to raise their voices against ongoing harassment by Chicago police officers.

Chicago street vendors protest police harassment

The vendors, who sell freshly-prepared ethnic foods, are predominately low-income immigrant Latino women challenged by balancing several low-wage/day labor jobs and hectic childcare schedules.

Under a Chicago peddling ordinance that prohibits the selling of cut or prepared foods, vendors face fines between $50 and $200, which are a large percentage of their average yearly income of $6,000 to $10,000.

In addition to the fines, many vendors have had their food tossed out by police who threaten to call immigration and ask to see their “papers.”

JCUA has been working with AVA for about a year and a half now on the group’s long-term vision of winning a comprehensive ordinance from the city that will protect the right of vendors to sell ethnic food.

The group is also pushing for a kitchen cooperative where vendors can come together to learn about their rights and health and safety regulations. Another goal of the group is to continue to organize in support of other vendors and immigrant workers across the country.

Last week the street vendors organized a march down 26^th Street in protest of the recent increase in fines and food tossing.

The march was organized shortly after 56-year-old street vendor, Alicia Alarcon, was shot and wounded by a stray bullet while selling elotes in her Little Village neighborhood—a business she started after losing her job as a factory worker.

Learn more about JCUA’s worker justice work

Faith, Social Justice and Wisconsin

[This article was originally posted on Jewcy.com]

By Asaf Bar-Tura
Coordinator, Jewish-Muslim Community Building Initiative

Even in the 21st century, it seems we can still hear the prophetic calls of Jeremiah and Isaiah, of Hillel and Maimonides. We hear their cries for justice echoing these days in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, as we do every day in devastated communities across the nation’s cities. The challenges are great: an economic crisis that persists with as much endurance as our pursuit to counter it; workers’ rights to safety and protection being questioned; foreclosures that board up not only homes but people.

We struggle. The challenges are great, our opponents strong, and those who still believe that justice matters seek a powerful response. The task is not only to help this or that needy individual. We aim to change long-standing systems of oppression, and to strengthen those healthy systems that were accomplished by previous generations. We don’t want to settle for winning this time around. Rather, we want to change the rules of the game. We want justice, not charity. Respect, not mercy.

Faith Leaders Hold Service for Hotel Workers in Front of Hyatt Regency

CHICAGO– Faith-based groups from across the city, including JCUA, gathered Thursday, Nov. 4 in front of the Hyatt Regency to rally support for UNITE HERE Local 1 hotel workers who have been protesting the Hyatt’s unfair labor practices.

Faith leaders stand in support of Hyatt workers

In August 2010 JCUA Founder Rabbi Robert Marx and more than 250 other Jewish leaders nationwide signed a pledge to support the Hyatt workers who’ve been dealing with pay, hour and job cuts, and excessive injury rates.

“It is our honor to stand in solidarity with the workers of Hyatt and Hilton against injustice,” said Rabbi Brant Rosen, leader of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, at the interfaith service Nov. 4. [Read more in UNITE HERE news release]

Here’s a glimpse of what happened at the event.

Learn more at justiceathyatt.org.

Three Ways to Make this Yom Kippur More Meaningful

By Miriam Grossman
Education Coordinator, JCUA

This weekend Jewish people will gather to worship and reflect in synagogues across the globe.  For many, the process of introspection and fasting which constitutes Yom Kippur is a deeply fulfilling ritual that charges the body and spirit for the coming year.

But in all honesty, this revitalization and sense of connection does not always come easily or even at all.  How can we, as deeply engaged and progressive Jewish communities, rethink Yom Kippur to create an experience that is even more relevant to our lives and our work?

Make it Personal

Every Yom Kippur we read the haftora portion Isaiah 57:14 – 58:14*.

A New Street Vending Ordinance? The time is NOW.

By Rebecca Van Horn
Community Initiatives Organizer, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

For the past 11 months, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs has worked with the Street Vendors Association (AVA, La Asociación de Vendedores Ambulantes) in Chicago to support passage of a new street vending ordinance. The current Peddler License permits the sale of only uncut, unpeeled fruits and vegetables and packaged goods, preventing vendors from selling prepared ethnic foods like tamales and elotes.

Street vendors march in Chicago

The Association of Street Vendors (AVA) formed in 1992 in response to the brutality of police and health inspectors. Today it boasts more than 200 members and meets every Wednesday at locations on 26th and 47th streets in Little Village to discuss what is happening within the street vending community and how it can improve working conditions in the future.

Victory: Blackstone Hotel Must Rehire Fired Workers

JCUA's Tom Walsh

JCUA congratulates UNITE HERE on a victorious NLRB ruling.

Tom Walsh, director of advocacy and public policy at JCUA, spoke at a press conference in support of the Blackstone Hotel workers that were unlawfully fired for attempting to unionize.  Earlier this week the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered the Blackstone Hotel to offer the fired employees their jobs back with back pay and benefits.  UNITE HERE local 1, Chicago’s hospitality workers union, estimates that lost pay and benefits come to a total near $250,000.  The press conference took place outside of the Blackstone Hotel on July 8, 2010.

Tom Walsh’s remarks:

We are here today to tell the courageous workers who were so mistreated by the Blackstone Hotel that you are not alone. Your union has your back, JCUA and allies throughout Chicago have your back.

So any time you are pressured by the management or ownership of this hotel to NOT speak up for your rights, or to NOT exercise your right to organize, just tell them that they’re wrong. You and thousands of people across Chicago know it, and will fight for these rights.

Every worker in America who comes to work — ready to work — should be treated with dignity, not fired.

This hotel and its owners received over $40 million dollars in public money to renovate and reopen this hotel. How can a company that has received $40 million dollars of OUR money go about firing and harassing honest, hard-working employees. That is not right. That is unacceptable.

Blackstone Hotel workers, and hotel workers throughout Chicago: We have your backs. Thank you for making Chicago such a tremendous town to visit.

JCUA staff and leaders have been working with UNITE HERE on the Blackstone Hotel campaign for the past year.

Read more about this story:

UNITE HERE / CBS2 /  Crain’s Chicago Business / Chicago Sun-Times

Anniversary of Congress Hotel Strike

In our continuing support of the workers at Chicago’s Congress Plaza Hotel and their fight for a fair and just contract, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs will join the members of Unite Here Local 1 and Rep. Luis Gutierrez at a rally outside of the Congress Hotel on Monday, June 14 (4 p.m. – 6 p.m.).

JCUA believes that worker’s rights are human rights and we will not stop supporting the Congress Hotel workers until they are treated with respect and dignity.  JCUA and Unite Here Local 1 would greatly appreciate your support, your voice and your presence on Monday!

We will gather at the JCUA office in Chicago (610 S. Michigan, 5th Floor) at 3:30 p.m. and walk over to the Congress Hotel (1 block north) as a group to join the event. If you have any questions or would like to RSVP please contact Tom Walsh at 312.663.0960, or tom@jcua.org.