Jewish Labor Committee

And you can help. Drop a note to [email protected] , and let's discuss. EXCERPT: "[But] union advocates shouldn’t give up. The political environment that gave anti-union employers a free hand may be changing the decline of unionization was, above all, political, not a necessary consequence of a changing economy. And America needs a union revival if we’re to have any hope of reversing spiraling inequality. "Let’s start by talking about why union membership declined in th...e first place, and why it’s still possible to hope for a revival." https://www.nytimes.com///12/opinion/us-unions-amazon.html See more

Two related items for this day in Jewish, labor, women's and immigrant history, April 6, 1882 - That was the day trade union leader and suffragist Rose Schneiderman was born. Rachel Rose Schneiderman (18821972) had a difficult childhood. She was born in the village of Sawin in Russian Poland but her parents, who worked in sewing trades, immigrated to New York in 1890. Two years later her father died leaving behind three children and a pregnant wife. Young Rose was forced to ...stop school at nine in order to take care of her brothers while her mother was out working. SOURCE: https://amazingwomeninhistory.com/rose-schneiderman-labour/ Schneiderman attacked sexual segregation in the workplace, tried to unionize women called for state regulation of working conditions She argued for comparable worth laws, government-funded childcare, and maternity insurance... Those ideas and dreams are the legacy of Rose Schneiderman. https://laborhistoryin2.podbean.com/e/april-6-rose-schneid/

"A historic union battle in Bessemer, Alabama, could result in the country’s first organized Amazon warehouse and it’s thrust a longtime Jewish union leader back into the spotlight. "Stuart Appelbaum is president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents more than 60,000 workers in retail, food and warehouse jobs nationwide. The union, known as RWDSU, is vying to represent the nearly 6,000 warehouse workers in Amazon’s Bessemer fulfillment center..., and Appelbaum, who has led the union for more than two decades, has been a constant presence in the town and in the media during the months-long union vote. "As a child in Hartford, Connecticut, Appelbaum was president of his Conservative synagogue’s USY chapter and attended Camp Ramah. He graduated from Brandeis University and Harvard Law School. "Today, he and his husband reside in New York, where in addition to RWDSU, the 66-year-old Appelbaum is also president of the Jewish Labor Committee. Founded in 1934 to raise awareness of Nazi atrocities in Europe, the group now works to promote solidarity between American Jews and trade unions, something Appelbaum also seeks to advance as a member of the executive council of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. `I always had a sense that Jewish values made me want to be part of a fight for social justice, especially for working people,' he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "His fight against Amazon will soon ... " read it all here: https://www.jta.org//meet-the-longtime-jewish-labor-activi See more

As workers at an Alabama warehouse await the results of a ballot over whether to unionize, Stuart Appelbaum explains why this fight is different from all other fights. https://www.haaretz.com//.premium-for-this-jewish-union-ch

TWO PHONE CALLS: TELL YOUR SENATORS TO PASS THE HEROES ACT Take Action: Call 415-763-5949 and tell your Senator to pass the HEROES Act today to extend the $600 unemployment checks, protect healthcare and so much more. Note: that phone number will connect you with one of your Senators’ offices - to make sure to call both of them, just click here for a list of all U.S. Senators https://www.senate.gov//contact_informati/senators_cfm.cfm ... The U.S. Senate must pass the "Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act" or HEROES Act, H.R. 6800. It’s been months since the House of Representatives passed this bill, and the Senate has refused to pass a Senate version. The proposed Help, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act has only a $200 unemployment supplement. It allows business men and women to deduct 100% of the cost of their corporate lunches on their taxes, and blocks lawsuits against companies where frontline heroes got COVID-19 on the job.

hat-tip Ruth Messinger.

All of us at the Jewish Labor Committee wish you, your family, relatives, co-workers, friends and neighbors a safe, good and sweet year - a more peaceful, more just, fairer and better year.... The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, a time for self-examination and renewal, is upon us. For people around the world, this has been a terrifying, saddening, and challenging time. As the season changes, and as we approach a New Year, the world has changed in ways that we never contemplated or even believed possible. The death toll from COVID-19 is staggering. The pandemic has raised the curtain on inequalities and injustices that have always existed but have now been exacerbated: the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on communities of color and those with less means is starkly visible. And the number of people who have lost their jobs is shocking. We are challenged by the health and healthcare crisis, a terrible economic crisis, and, at the same time, an unprecedented political crisis. But our work continues.

A tune for our times, and for Labor Day Weekend, 2020. Here is a thoroughly modern English and Yiddish "March of The Jobless Corps" - an adaptation of "Arbetlose Marsch - Song of the Unemployed*," originally by Mordechai Gebertig**, an amazing and now-underappreciated Jewish / Yiddish poet and songwriter.* This version is by Daniel Kahn and `the Painted Bird' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KFVVKFxr60 * The original's lyrics are online here: http://tinyurl.com/5rwvypg ... ** (18771942), Yiddish poet and songwriter. Mordkhe Gebirtig (Bertig) was a native of Kraków ... In April 1942, the Gebirtig family was transported to the ghetto, where Mordkhe still continued to write. On 4 June 1942, while being marched to the Kraków train station on the way to the Beec death camp, Gebirtig was murdered by random Nazi fire. Source: https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Gebirtig_Mordkhe See more

The Jewish Labor Committee joined over 600 Jewish organizations, synagogues, and congregations that signed this ad in The New York Times: We say unequivocally: Black Lives Matter. The Jewish community and the labor movement must continue to rise up for Black lives,with all of our spiritual, political, and intellectual resources.... Together we say: #BlackLivesMatter Full letter here: https://medium.com//jewish-organizations-and-synagogues-sa

CALL YOUR SENATORS This flight attendant and essential worker just found out he will be furloughed unless our government acts to extend the Payroll Support Program. This is real despair Americans are feeling all over this country without help from the federal government. #ReliefNow Details on how to contact your senators, and the central points, here: https://www.afacwa.org/extend_caresact_payroll_support

SIGN A PETITION We’ve learned that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is redirecting $1.35 billion from the CARES Act away from public school that serve low-income students, giving it to private schools. Please take a moment and sign this petition of the American Federation of Teachers. Tell Secretary DeVos to give ALL schools the resources they need to reopen safely.... https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/equitable-services/

NOTE: Please help get the word out - share this! HELP A FARMWORKER GET A FACEMASK Farm workers are out in the fields working today and every day to bring food to our tables. They do not get to work at home like many of us during the COVID-19 pandemic. They often have to carpool to the fields. Sometimes, the work requires being close together. The United Farm Workers has been hearing reports from the field that employers told agricultural workers that they shouldn't show up ...to work without face masks. This is illegal: any equipment required for the job including tools, masks and gloves must be provided by the company. Workers are afraid. They fear potentially spreading deadly germs to their families at home. Like all other essential workers, they want and expect masks to be provided to them. The UFW has begun a much-needed mask drive, ordering a large quantity of I am essential reusable cloth masks. Join the UFW’s drive to provide masks for farm workers during COVID-19. https://ufw.org/covid19maskdrive/ See more

Click here to watch: https://bit.ly/30bxQIO July 28, 2020 - The Jewish Labor Committee held an online memorial in honor of those workers who have died from COVID-19. We remembered those we have lost, and paused to honor them and their fellow front-line workers still in danger. Sara Nelson, President, Association of Flight Attendants, moderated the program. Speakers included Jean Ross, RN, President, National Nurses United; Mona Darby, Wayne Farms (Decatur, AL) poultry proces...sing worker, RWDSU Mid-South Council member and & union shop steward; Gladys Betancourt, apartment cleaner, represented by SEIU Local 32BJ, whose coworker passed away from COVID-19 in March; Rabbi Barbara Penzner, Temple Hillel B’nai Torah of West Roxbury, MA and Co-Chair of the New England Jewish Labor Committee, and Stuart Appelbaum, President, RWDSU and President, Jewish Labor Committee. One day before Tisha B'Av - a Jewish holiday, traditionally set aside to reflect on historical catastrophes that occurred on this date - we focused on those bearing the brunt of COVID-19: front-line workers, those who work in hospitals, nursing homes, supermarkets, public transportation, warehouses, meatpacking plants, or other settings, who are dying because of where they work. Front-line workers deserve not only recognition and thanks, but safe work-spaces, along with adequate wages and benefits and hazard pay. You are invited to watch this online memorial event, to mourn the many front-line workers we have lost this year, and to honor those who have been put to the test by the COVID-19 crisis. The JLC will continue to fight for safer work-spaces and a just reopening/recovery. May the memory of those we have lost be an inspiration.

Webinar: Why We Need to Save the Postal Service July 30 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm Eastern The U.S. Postal Service has long been an important source of decent jobs, particularly for people of color, who make up 40 percent of their workforce. In the current crisis, postal workers are playing a particularly vital role in our nation’s economic and public health as they strain to meet the surge in demand for package deliveries. At the same time, mail volume has plummeted as a result o...f the crisis. Without emergency relief, the Postal Service is facing a real threat of bankruptcy. REGISTER: https://us02web.zoom.us//regist/WN_8d5tKenmQdadwAJRgFufaA This Institute for Policy Studies webinar will explain why we need to save the Postal Service from this immediate threat and support innovations like postal banking that will make USPS an even greater public asset for generations to come. Speakers: * Judy Beard, Legislative and Political Director, American Postal Workers Union * Scott Klinger, Jobs with Justice * Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies Why We Need to Save the Postal Service, is part of the IPS webinar series, Progressive Politics and the Time of Pandemic

Yesterday,the Jewish Labor Committee held an online event memorializing those workers killed during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and honoring those front-line workers who are at risk every day. One day before Tisha B'Av, we heard from Sara Nelson, President, Association of Flight Attendants, who moderated the program; Jean Ross, RN, President, National Nurses United; Mona Darby, Wayne Farms (Decatur, AL) poultry processing worker, RWDSU Mid-South Council member and & union shop st...eward; Gladys Betancourt, apartment cleaner, represented by SEIU Local 32BJ, whose coworker passed away from COVID in March; Rabbi Barbara Penzner, Temple Hillel B’nai Torah of West Roxbury, MA and Co-Chair of the New England JLC; and Stuart Appelbaum, President, RWDSU and President, JLC. President Appelbaum shared our deep sadness for the working men and women who have lost their lives. These workers, he said, have been deemed essential but [have been] treated as expendable by bosses. Remarking on the 150,000 lives the U.S. has lost to COVID-19, he stated the world has changed in ways we never contemplated. Read more here: https://www.peoplesworld.org//jewish-labor-committee-reme/ See more

Please join us on July 28th at 4 p.m. EDT for a national Jewish Labor Committee event in honor of those workers who have died from COVID-19. Join us as we remember those we have lost, and pause to honor them and their fellow front-line workers still in danger. REGISTER HERE - https://register.gotowebinar.com/regist/5870234714903245072 Speakers include... Sara Nelson, President, Association of Flight Attendants Moderator Jean Ross, RN, President, National Nurses United Mona Darby, Wayne Farms (Decatur, AL) poultry processing worker, RWDSU Mid-South Council member and & union shop steward Gladys Betancourt, apartment cleaner, represented by SEIU Local 32BJ, whose coworker passed away from COVID in March Rabbi Barbara Penzner, Temple Hillel B’nai Torah of West Roxbury, MA and Co-Chair of the New England Jewish Labor Committee Stuart Appelbaum, President, RWDSU and President, Jewish Labor Committee

Please join the Jewish Labor Committee on July 28th at 4 p.m. Eastern Time for a national pre-Tisha B'av online event in honor of those workers who have died from COVID-19. Join us as we remember those we have lost, and pause to honor them and their fellow frontline workers still in danger. REGISTER HERE - https://register.gotowebinar.com/regist/5870234714903245072 Presenters include:... * Sara Nelson, President, Association of Flight Attendants Moderator * Jean Ross, RN, President, National Nurses United * Mona Darby, Wayne Farms (Decatur, AL) poultry processing worker, RWDSU Mid-South Council member and & union shop steward * Rabbi Barbara Penzner, Temple Hillel B’nai Torah of West Roxbury, MA and Co-Chair of the New England Jewish Labor Committee * Stuart Appelbaum, President, RWDSU, and President, Jewish Labor Committee