Workers’ Rights & Ethical Consumption

Spending money on any product is a vote for the producer and one of the greatest influences we have on society is through our decision-making of where to spend our money. And indeed, much of modern western society has been taken over by excessive consumption and what many theologians have called an idolatry of materialism. In all that we do, and in all that we purchase, we must be cognizant of how our spending affects the broader world. But even more so, we must be aware that even a small change in our purchasing power could have major ramifications in the marketplace. At the heart of workers’ rights in the recognition that many workers are invisible to us. They wake up early in the morning and go home late at night, all the while working in back rooms far from our prying eyes. Jewish tradition says, No! We must not ignore these people. For even though society may not deem them worthy of having a modicum of dignity, we know that they are imbued with an irrevocable heavenly dignity. Thus, in all that we do, we must have these workers at the forefront of our minds so that we ensure that they are treated fairly, paid justly, and given protection against exploitation and castigation.

• The Dignity of the Worker, Uri L’Tzedek
• Workers’ Rights and Ethical Consumption, Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz
• Workers in Jewish Text and Thought, Raizl Druxman and Dasi Fruchter
• Kavod LaPoel: What Halacha Demands of an Employer, Sarah Robinson
• Ethics of Consumerism: Desire, Responsibility, and the Good Society, Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz
• How Will You Spend Your Money?, Ezra Fishman
• Ethical Consumerism: Why Should I Care?: Raizel Druxman
• Restaurant Workers’ Rights (Youth Source Sheet), Uri L’Tzedek
• A Jewish Perspective on the Living Wage, Rabbi Ari Hart

• Your Nanny Makes You an Employer. The Torah Makes You Responsible for Their Well-Being, Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, JTA
• Competition, Pricing, Consumer Responsibility and Fair Trade in a Global Economy: A Modern Jewish Perspective, Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz
• Jewish Ethics of Employee Treatment and Communal Responsibility, Rabbi Dani Passow
• On Workers and Animals: The Rav and Ethical Kashrut, Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yaknlowitz, Times of Israel

• A Jewish Guide to Fairtrade, Fairtrade International, PDF

• Put pressure on local corporate leaders in our communities and beyond who are accused of underpaying or mistreating workers to abide by certain ethical procedures and Jewish law.
• Lobby your representative to raise the standards of ethical trade and to ensure that all trade agreements include enforceable regulations that maintain just labor standards.
• Help build consumer awareness of fair trade products, purchase them yourself, and be sure that your schools, synagogues, and offices do the same. Encourage your local supermarket to supply more fair trade products.
• Avoid purchasing products from companies with known predatory tendencies or labor injustices.
• Ensure all establishments that you patronize abide by environmentally friendly practices and pay their workers fairly.
• Take opportunities if and when possible to travel and speak with individuals from other cultures and learn about their lives, livelihoods, concerns, and ideologies.
• Learn more about the Torah’s laws and values around just business practice (Choshen Mishpat). Also learn more about the intricacies of capitalism, socialism, globalization, and philosophies of economic oppression and human dignity.

• The Workers Circle
• Fight For 15
• Amnesty International
• Fair Labor
• Oxfam: a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice

Jack Newhouse