Ross Hyman, a research analyst for the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, sends us info on this latest support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

“Wool workers and dyers have the right to say: ‘We will all be partners in any business that comes to the city.’ Bakers have the right to arrange their shifts.”

Quoting the above passage from the Tosefta, a rabbinic text written some 1,800 years ago, the rabbis of the Reconstructionist Rabbinic Association passed a resolution March 16 at their annual convention that reaffirms Judaism’s long tradition of support for workers’ rights, union organizing and collective bargaining. Reconstructionism is a denomination of Judaism and is among many faith groups to formally support the Employee Free Choice Act.

The resolution calls on its member rabbis to support legislation, beginning with the Employee Free Choice Act, which strengthens the freedom of workers to bargain collectively, support workers who are struggling with management for their rights.

The Reconstuctionist rabbis join several other Jewish organizations that recently have passed resolutions or endorsements in support of the Employee Free Choice Act and workers’ rights. These include the Jewish Labor Committee, The Progressive Jewish Alliance, The Jewish Council for Urban Affairs, The Jewish Social Policy Action Network, Jews United for Justice, Rabbis for Workers’ Choice, The Shalom Center, Tikkun/The Network of Spiritual Progressives, and Uri L’Tzedek.

In addition, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism in 2008 set the following as the official halakhic (Jewish law) position of the Conservative movement:

Jewish employers should allow their employees to make their own independent decisions about whether to unionize, and may not interfere in any way with organizing drives by firing or otherwise punishing involved workers, by refusing workers the option for voluntary recognition of their union, or by otherwise threatening workers who wish to unionize.

Rabbis can sign a petition in support of Employee Free Choice and workers rights here.

The text of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association resolution is available at Rabbi Brant Rosen’s blog.

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