Laboring in Thought and Action
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Gwen Litvak is a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. She is a graduate of UCLA. |
“The Jewish tradition affirms the crucial importance of work as central to the dignity of the human being.”
-- Union for Reform Judaism Resolution on Full Employment, 1977
Last week, Jews around the world gathered to observe the Yamim Norim, the Days of Awe. We considered our sins committed during the previous year and reflected on our own practices of teshuvah, tefilah and tzedakah. As I reflected on my own experiences in the past year, I thought about my work on labor issues here at the RAC. Where more could I have done to raise awareness about the paltry federal minimum wage? What time and energy had I given to organizing issues when I was in college? What in the High Holiday liturgy spoke about work, dignity, and creating sustainable communities and stable families?
I studied Los Angeles city living wage in my senior year at UCLA, shortly before coming to the RAC. The most notable success of the movement was the ability to organize workers in a city traditionally hostile to organizing. The living wage not only increased the standard of living for thousands of people but restored dignity to those in the hotel, airline, and restaurant industries.
The two articles below discuss the ways in which dignity is slowly being removed from the work of low wage laborers. The first article, an editorial by Holly Sklar, poignantly discusses the disturbing gap between rich and poor. The second article reacts to the National Labor Relations Board recent decision to change the definition of supervisor, ostensibly making it harder for employees to have the autonomy to organize. I encourage you to read them and reflect on the ways in which your own daily practices reflect the maxim that dignity and work are intrinsically linked.
http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060929090823361&mode=print
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401644.html
Comments
Another insightful blog! What can I say?
Posted by: Nancy Litvak | October 19, 2006 4:35 PM