In my childhood, Shabbat never felt complete without Stella D'Oro cookies. For the uninitiated, these are dry cookies whose chief (or only) advantage is that they are parve (dairy free) and therefore can be eaten for dessert after a meat meal. I was especially partial to the Swiss Fudge flavor, which featured a dollop of chewy fudge in the middle of an otherwise-bland cookie-if you nibbled away the outside first, you could enjoy a few bites of pure fudge at the end.

I have since stopped eating meat and have learned to bake, thereby eliminating the need for parve supermarket cookies, but still have a soft place in my heart for Stella D'Oro. I was therefore upset to hear recently that workers at the cookie-maker's Bronx factory went on strike this past summer, and even more upset that this strike has attracted (as far as I can tell) virtually no notice in the Jewish community.

In 2006, Brynwood Partners bought Stella D'Oro from Kraft Foods. As soon as the contract of the existing 136 workers ran out in the summer of 2008, the new management demanded that the workers accept pay cuts of up to 26% and begin contributing to their health insurance plan. The workers scheduled to bear the brunt of this pay cut would be the women who package the cookies. (Brynwood has classified certain jobs-mostly those held by men-as "skilled" and thus subject to smaller paycuts.) The workers walked out in August.

The Jewish community has already demonstrated an ability to change Stella D'Oro policy. A few years ago, the company decided, for financial reasons, to start using dairy ingredients in the aforementioned Swiss Fudge cookies. Jews around the country rose up as one and demanded justice. Faced with the possibility of losing its primary (or only) customer base, Stella D'Oro quickly reversed the decision to dairy-fy the cookies, and returned to purchasing parve fudge filling.

Will we harness this same economic power to save the livelihoods of 136 Bronx families?

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If Israel has voted for change today it is not for change of the political map – it’s for a change of the political system. Whatever one might think about the outcome of this election, it is clear to most observers that this can’t continue: political parties should not rule with less than one quarter of the mandates. A Prime Minister can’t seriously make policy when he (or she) has to compromise with so many parties over so many issues just to maintain his coalition.

Israel has not voted for any of the parties. It did not vote for any of the ideologies. It did not vote for something – but rather against: those voting for Livni voted against Likud’s Binyamin Netanyahu. Those voting for Israel Beiteinu and Avigdor Lieberman voted against the ruling elites.

But they also voted against the political system. Lieberman made a name for himself as the scary candidate promising to change the relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel. However, Lieberman has many other important items on his agenda and one of them is the need to change the system and give the Prime Minister more power (those fearing him tremble when they think of the prospect of a more powerful Prime Minister Lieberman). This longstanding desire for system change is the tempting promise Kadima is now dangling in the hope that Lieberman might grab the achievement he can get – the achievement he’ll be able to take credit for.

The speakers of Kadima have a simple message to Lieberman: with Kadima and Labor you can have this success – with Netanyahu you can’t. Netanyahu, they say, is committed to other parties, namely, the religious parties, and will not be able to implement such change. One Kadima Minister went even further, suggesting that Lieberman join the coalition until this change is completed, and promised that another election round will be scheduled when this is done.

Labor’s Ehud Barak also dedicated a significant portion of his election night speech to the need to better the system. Of course, that’s a more understandable position when it comes from a losing party. Yet again, Kadima and Lieberman, both on the winning side of this day also sing the same tune – and I think they will have another important supporter: the public.

The Kosher/Legal Thing Is A Good Point: but I don't think Chabadniks care much what Jesus would doLast we heard, Agriprocessor’s PR firm had been caught trying to smear the reputation of Rabbi Morris Allen and Uri L’Tzedek, but there have been several developments since then.

• Failed Messiah broke the news that the May 12th raid also uncovered more than 100 fake and fraudulent identity documents from the AgriProcessors Human Services department. It also seems that workers knew they could come to the Human Services department to get fake documents. So you can add forging official documents to the list of AgriProcessor’s evils.

• The New York Times has an in depth look at labor violations in the AgriProcessors plant, including child labor violations. There were kids as young as 13 working there, despite regulations that prohibit anyone under 18 from working on the floor of the meatpacking plant because of the danger involved. One of the kids who worked there tells the Times he felt like he was a slave.

• Harsh!: but not uncalled forCBS reports that many workers have been docked pay that they earned before the raid.

• The Jew and the Carrot has an interview with Uri L’Tzedek co-director Ari Hart about whether the AgriProcessors boycott was called off too quickly.

• Jewschool has an amazing post about the recent rally in Postville to support the workers. The pictures are especially fantastic.

• Want to get familiar with the crooks and creeps of Agriprocessors? Check out our Most Wanted.
  

The International Trade Union Confederation has published its annual survey of violations of trade union rights for 2007. (Hat tip: David at Harry's Place). Here's what it says about Iran, whose recognition of any form of labor rights is nil:

Protest activity: Despite the ban on strikes, workers' protests and other work stoppages are a daily occurrence throughout Iranian enterprises. They are often repressed. Most of these protests concern either low wages, the non-payment of wages, lay-offs or factory closures. The minimum wage set by the government is $US 140 per month, while the official poverty line stands at $US 300. Nearly two million workers have not been paid - some for nearly two years.

Barriers to organising: Obstacles to organising include the presence of security and intelligence forces in workplaces, and the increasing trend towards temporary contracts. It is common practice in Iran to fire workers the day before a three month probation period expires. They are then rehired on a new contract with a new period of three months probation. The practice is then repeated endlessly. A worker hired under such a contract is not entitled to benefits and severance pay. According to statistics reportedly provided by the government, more than 1.5 million workers are hired under such circumstances.

Suppression of Workers’ Rights Advocates: During the past year, those who tried to advocate workers rights were detained, harassed, interrogated and subjected to official and unofficial intimidation. One notable example was Dr. Nasser Zarafshan, a renowned human and workers’ rights advocate who faced several attempts on his life while in prison for defending the families of assassinated writers and intellectuals.

Other groups and individuals were also subjected to this policy of legal and illegal intimidation. Their unions were not recognised, their newspapers and websites were closed or subjected to pressure, and they were called for questioning and warned to be silent or face the wrath of the "Islamic Judiciary". Organisations like the Coordination Committee to form Independent Workers Organisations, the "Steering Committee for the Pursuit of the Right to Form Independent Workers Bodies and Organisations", the Founding Board of the Union of Dismissed and Unemployed Workers and even "Factory Committees" were refused recognition and subjected to different forms of harassment and intimidation.

Now here's Iraq, which has failed to rescind Saddam's labor laws. Perhaps the most depressing fact is that trade unionists are targeted by sectarian militias, terrorists, and joint U.S.-Iraqi forces. Should we ever find ourselves subjectively on the same side as the Mahdi Army or Al Qaeda?

Most workers banned from union membership: Given the predominance of the public sector in Iraq, many workers are deprived of the right to organise. Sectors like banking, insurance, oil and others are overwhelmingly state-owned. Even industrial factories producing batteries or cement are very often state-owned.

Only one national centre officially recognised: The only officially recognised trade union is the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). It represents progress in the sense that it was created, in September 2005, as a result of a merger between three unions, the Iraqi Federation of Workers' Trade Unions (IFTU), previously the only one to have official recognition, the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and the General Federation of Iraqi Trade Unions (GFITU). However, the fact that only one national trade union confederation has been granted official recognition limits freedom of association. Organisations such as the Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) have been refused recognition.

Some employers also refused to recognise trade unions as they were not formally registered, simply due to the lack of registration offices.

Threats against workers trying to start a strike: Some employers have referred to provisions in former laws to threaten any worker attempting to take strike action in a state-owned company.

Trade unionists in danger: In the current, unstable situation in the country, trade unionists are targeted by Iraqi militias, terrorist groups, allied occupation troops and others. So many violations of trade union rights occur in Iraq that those reported at the international level can only be considered a random sample.

And here's what the international left used to say when confronted with grim realities like the above. Forgive Billy Bragg his "Manichean" tendency, won't you:

This government had an idea
And parliament made it law
It seems like it's illegal
To fight for the union any more

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

We went out to join the picket line
For together we cannot fail
We got stopped by police at the county line
They said, "Go home boys or you're going to jail"

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

It's hard to explain to a crying child
Why her Daddy can't go back
So the family suffer
But it hurts me more
To hear a scab say Sod you Jack

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

I'm bound to follow my conscience
And do whatever I can
But it'll take much more than the union law
To knock the fight out of a working man

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

Since yesterday was Labor Day here in the States, and since I actually had class on Labor Day (not that I’m bitter) I’ve been thinking about Jewish law in connection with physical labor, laborers and business.
Working For the Man: not as bad as working on the street
We’ve talked before about slavery and how much of a problem it still is in the world. Recent estimates put the number of slaves in the world today around 27 million. This number includes many millions of women used as sex slaves, and several million children.

But labor issues are relevant in less extreme situations as well. You can always try to buy fair trade, which helps to ensure that farmers with small farms and/or artisans are being paid a fair price for their services and goods. And maybe the easiest way to keep some the labor mitzvot is to always pay for what you buy right away, especially when it involves labor. This means everyone from your contractor to your bartender.

Leviticus 19:13 says, “Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.” Which is to say, if you hire someone to do work for you, and they do the work, don’t leave them high and dry—even if it’s only for a little while.

We tend not to think about this kind of thing because it seems obvious, but in my experience Jewish organizations are incredibly bad at paying on time. One of my first jobs was working for a synagogue, and they didn’t pay me for more than three months. I had to go begging for my money a number of different times. And yes, I know this is a problem largely because Jewish orgs are often in a major budget crunch, but that’s really no excuse. We should always pay for what we get at the very first opportunity.

This is really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Jewish take on business ethics. It’s not just about treating workers with respect, and freeing captives. There are rules about embezzling, fraud and bankruptcy. The Talmud even tells the story of a labor strike during the Second Temple Period.

For an overview of other halachic stances on business scenarios check out this comprehensive listing of links from the Darche Noam Institute. Now go tell your secretary she’s a rock star, and buy some fair trade chocolate for your plumber.