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More Headlines from Postville

by Leah Koenig · June 24th, 2008

Underage workers, desperation, and extortion oh my…

Children at the plant. The Jerusalem Post reported: “‘The position of the OU has been that the only thing they are interested in is how the animal is slaughtered and whether there are imperfections in the meat,’ [Avram] Lyon said. ‘Postville is a poster child of failure of that kind of approach to kashrut. It’s proof you can’t separate one part of Jewish law from other parts of Jewish law.’ The fact that there were 18 children picked up in the recent raid was reason enough to respond, he said.” Read the story. (hat tip, Failed Messiah)

Agriprocessors turns to hiring homeless people. The JTA reported: “In an effort to restore lagging production at its Iowa plant, the country’s largest kosher meat producer has been hiring workers from homeless shelters in Texas to replace employees detained in a massive federal immigration raid last month.” Crime rates in the beleaguered Midwestern town have risen as a result. Read the story.

Extortion at Agriprocessors. From The Iowa Independent: “A former supervisor at the Postville meatpacking plant raided by federal agents last month has fled the country, Iowa Independent has learned. The supervisor, Hasom Amara, sometimes required workers to buy illicitly registered cars as a condition of work, three former workers have told the Iowa Independent.” Read the story.

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7 Responses to “More Headlines from Postville”

Kerr Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Before you casually report that “Crime rates in the beleaguered Midwestern town have risen as a result,” you might want to read that article more carefully. The crime it reports, besides the workers’ allegations that Agriprocessors lied to them about their working conditions, is that “four men were arrested for disorderly conduct,” which could mean anything, and that a woman went to a church to ask for help with her prescription medications, which could mean anything. Homeless people are treated as crimes in and of themselves wherever they go. The bigger problem is, it appears to me, that Agriprocessors has just switched the demographic of the people they’re exploiting without doing anything to improve workers’ conditions.
Leah Koenig Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Thanks Kerr – I didn’t mean to suggest that all homeless people are “crimes in and of themselves.”

I have heard reports from personal sources – people who have spent time in Postville in the last two weeks – that crime rates have skyrocketed there since the new crop of workers came up from Texas – aside from the four arrests reported in this article. But you’re right, the bigger problem is systemic rather than tied to any particular person.
Kerr Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Thanks Kerr – I didn’t mean to suggest that all homeless people are “crimes in and of themselves.”

I know you didn’t. I’m sorry, I was sharper than necessary. I meant to point out that a description of rising crime due to homelessness sometimes creates the misunderstanding that crime rates must be rising because homeless people are committing crimes, and often the explanation is a bit more complex than that.
Michael Croland Says:
June 25th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I might not be commenting each time, but I think it’s great that you’re shining the spotlight so brightly on AgriProcessors and keeping it going. Great job!
Morris Allen Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
There is a war going on here, the war between the kashrut standards of Orthodoxy and Conservatives. For so long, Orthodoxy has controlled the “industry” and we see what has happened.

Tzedek will set a standard set by a committee and it will be certain to protect workers from abuse. An added benefit it that it will protect the IRS from being defrauded, because Tzedek will entail honesty on taxes as well.

We will give a pass to small stores where illegals work, but not large companies – that is to much leeway. If an owner has a housekeeper or nanny, he or she better be legal.

Then again, if these illegals are paid well and treated well, maybe it won’t matter that they are illegal. This hasn’t been worked out yet.

Meanwhile, the Agriprocessors matter should continue until we get what we deserve. Tzedek on out terms, Tzedek for our beliefs, and a Tzedek that we can regulate.
Uri L'Tzedek Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Uri L’Tzedek Statement on Agriprocessors
July 8, 2008

rubashkin1.gifOn May 23rd of this year, Uri L’Tzedek wrote an open letter to Aaron Rubashkin, expressing how deeply upset we were by evidence of worker mistreatment in his company, Agriprocessors, and calling on the community of kosher consumers to join us in demanding change. Since the outset of our campaign, Uri L’Tzedek has sought protection and fair treatment for workers at Agriprocessors’ Postville plant. Our effort has been guided by the spirit of Rabbi Yosef Breuer of blessed memory and his 1949 essay “Glatt Kosher – Glatt Yosher,” where he describes strict standards of kashrut and strict standards of ethics. As Rabbi Breuer wrote: “God’s Torah not only demands the observance of kashrut and the sanctification of our physical enjoyment; it also insists on the sanctification of our social relationships.”

The Jewish community in general and the observant community in particular are bound to the people who provide our food through the sacred social relationships of worker, employer, and consumer. Through this campaign, we have given voice to thousands of observant Jews who believe that the standards of kashrut of our food be matched by the kashrut of our ethics, and their voice has been heard loudly and clearly.

After the events of the May 11 federal raid at the Agriprocessors plant, and the release of government reports, affidavits, and media surrounding working conditions at the plant, thousands of observant Jews felt those sacred social relationships had been damaged. Uri L’Tzedek responded to those events with a letter that asked Agriprocessors to pay its workers a minimum wage and recommit to abiding by all U.S. law relating to worker safety and rights. In order to ensure that the company meets these modest requests, we asked that the company establish a department and staff to deal exclusively with these concerns.

In recent weeks, Agriprocessors retained James Martin, former Senior Federal U.S. Attorney to serve as Chief Compliance Officer for the company. Mr. Martin has instituted a number of important reforms including: the creation of an anonymous tip line for employees to report safety and rights violations without fear of retribution; establishment of a safety department within the company that is staffed by an officer and assistant (with plans for two additional employees); and development of new safety training initiatives. Mr. Martin has also assured us that his term is expected to last at least one year. His role, according to communications between Uri L’Tzedek and Agriprocessors, is to set in place the procedures and personnel to ensure that the compliance effort is “continual, robust, and permanent.” Mr. Martin, a reputable and skilled attorney with years of experience prosecuting corporate crime, has now accepted on himself and his firm, the Prevene Group, the professional responsibility to ensure the company treats its workers with the respect, dignity, and rights that are demanded by U.S. law.

We believe that through hiring Mr. Martin, Agriprocessors is beginning to take significant steps towards directly addressing the concerns of the Jewish leaders and consumers who signed our May 23rd letter. In light of these early signs of reform, Uri L’Tzedek is no longer calling for the community to abstain from purchasing Agriprocessors’ products. Time will show what kind of results these reforms will yield for the workers at Agriprocessors, but the social justice philosophy of Uri L’Tzedek is one deeply committed to challenging what is broken in our world but partnering to support efforts towards fixing it.

We are inspired by all the people throughout North America and the world who have raised their voice on this critical issue. Their participation in this effort has been the critical foundation of our work, and it has generated crucial moral awareness and has yielded impressive results. We are similarly thankful to the Agriprocessors corporation and the Rubashkin family, who by and large have engaged in a respectful dialogue.

If Agriprocessors does not implement Mr. Martin’s recommendations or demonstrates that it is not committed to full compliance with all laws regarding worker safety, pay, and rights, then we will once again raise our concerns with Agriprocessors and with the community of kosher consumers.

There are still matters of great concern in Postville: shattered families left without wage earners, mothers unable to find jobs to pay for basic necessities, children thousands of miles from home living in fear of another raid, a broken Postville economy, and deeply flawed federal immigration policy. Addressing these larger issues is integral to our work as activists. Uri L’Tzedek leadership has helped raise significant funds for the families deeply hurt by the raids and has met with U.S. House and Senate staff, and has had a conversation with Senator Joseph Lieberman, Head of the Department of Homeland Security to express our concerns about the human suffering that results from these kinds of enforcement tactics.

These events strengthen our conviction that Klal Yisrael and the Orthodox community are committed to leading the way in creating a just society and sanctifying the Name of God. We believe that this campaign signals a new level of communal expectation of all our businesses to conduct themselves with the highest standards of yashrut and tzedek, ethics and justice.