Workers of the World Unite you have Nothing to Lose but your Grains

This semester, students at Stern were moved and inspired by a simple realization: we are each morally responsible for the things we finance. In a real, albeit ironic way, we support the sweatshops of the Indonesian republic when we buy their deodorants. We contribute to the genetic engineering campaign when we fry Monsanto potatoes. Although meteorologists have yet to determine whether a butterfly flapping its wings in Texas can cause a hurricane in the Philippines, it is an economic fact that every time you purchase a Special Edition Ty Beanie Baby you repair hurricane damage in the South because each time a Beanie Baby is purchased it spurs the conscientious Ty Corporation to contribute $2 to hurricane victims in the fine state of Louisiana. Our purchases have wide and dramatic consequences that remain virtually unknown to the absent-minded consumer.

The human race, to which so many of this article's readers belong, is notorious for its limited imagination. It is therefore a natural response in the face of daunting and monstrous realities to redirect one's attention to the microcosm - the particular. It was this very human response that prompted students at Stern to postpone taking on the Indonesian Republic, an endeavor in which they no doubt could have succeeded had they set their minds to it. Instead, they chose to focus their energies on an organization much closer to home.

They realized in a sudden and acute way that as students, they were responsible for the policies that govern the great and glorious institution that we call Yeshiva University. So they began to ask questions: What are the policies and agendas that our tuition dollars are going to support? No doubt Yeshiva University's primary mission is to Educate, a topic with which the students are, hopefully, somewhat familiar. But what about the University's other policies? When it comes to the distribution of finances, tuition dollars support the University's labor-relations agenda to the same extent that they support the University's academic one. Is it not necessary for all students to familiarize themselves with what they are financing?

Can I say I'm a proud supporter of the University's policy towards its workers? I suppose first I'd have to find out what the University's policy towards its workers is. Do they receive decent wages? Are they paid on time? What union do they belong to and how expansive is their contract? Are they treated with the dignity and respect they deserve?

The student body's investigation was spearheaded by Shani Mintz who pulled together a critical mass of students and strategically partnered with Shmuly Yanklowitz and Uri l'Tzedek. President Joel, Human Resources, plumbers, security guards and union delegates were incredibly gracious in giving of their time to meet and discuss these issues. It became apparent that one of the most immediate and pressing problems confronting YU workers was that they lacked a place to eat their lunch. Without a lounge of their own, the workers were left eating in the streets, stairwells, and I quote, "rat-infested locker rooms." Over the course of the semester, students were able to present to the workers a partial, temporary solution to the problem.

It was arranged through the kind assistance of Administrator Grant Grastorf for an open classroom to be designated as a "Worker Lunchroom" from 12-1p.m .Tuesdays and Thursdays. Somewhere in the midst of all this we began to ask if maybe we should be striving for something more. Our aim became less about redressing a wrong and more about enacting a vision. As students, we allowed ourselves to wonder, what if Jewish employers and employment organizations really did hold themselves to higher standards? What if Jewish institutions the world over were stereotyped as being generous and kind and considerate? What if it became the by-word in the work world that everyone wanted to be employed by a Jewish institution because that's where the benefits, wages, and kindness were found?

No doubt, the affronts to the workers' rights at YU are mild in comparison to other prevalent and more caustic human rights violations being committed the world over. But even in redressing the wrongs found at our institution, something important was being done. In the simple act of investigating the worker situation on campus, students were sensitizing themselves. And we live in a world that is suffering from acute desensitization.

Student apathy and more globally, consumer apathy are that desensitization's surest symptoms. They are the unfortunate consequences of living in a world that has become a perpetual chain of massive organizations. Be those organizations universities or corporations, anything too big, inevitably, that will breed apathy because it becomes too burdensome for the individual to bother to understand the consequences of his actions. It's hard to picture the rounded wheel of cause and effect in the spiraling world of the corporation.

But it is just this ignorance that poses a moral danger. How can you act responsibly or correctly when you are ignorant of the effects of your actions? The vast, complicated workings of today's world have become something of an excuse for being irresponsible and uninformed.

What we need to train ourselves to do is to see the modern world not as an excuse, not even as a problem, but as a challenge. We need to challenge ourselves to extend out moral apertures and our understandings the world over, because that is precisely how far our actions reach.

So it was in this spirit that Stern students, like Peter Pan, went on a search for something as subtle and elusive as their shadow: their effect. I urge every student on campus to do the same, by joining our committee: Activists Advocating for the Rights of Workers. Next year it will expand to be a University-wide committee concerned with every aspect of University-labor relations on both the Wilf and Beren campuses.

If you are a student, worker, alum, administrator, or even a parent and would like to join, send an email to Eskreisl@gmail.com with the words "Worker Interests" in the subject line.

The actions undertaken by such a committee strike to the core of what it means to be Jewish. Humanitarianism is in no way foreign to Judaism. Just the opposite. Modern Historians tells us that the present day conception of social justice is derived from Judaism. In the words of Paul Johnson:

[To the Jews] we owe the idea…of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person…of the collective conscience and so of social responsibility."

One need not look far for the explicit directives: "Do not take advantage of a hired man" (Deut 24:14). "Do not oppress a stranger" (Exod. 23:9)…"You and the stranger shall be the same before the L-rd" (Numbers 15:16). According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, it was before Plato's Republic, Hobbes' Leviathan and Rousseau's The Social Contract, that the exodus story pioneered a path to a just and gracious society.

It is a tremendous responsibility to be a student at a Jewish institution. Every action one takes here is a reflection on Jews everywhere. No doubt the same is true when each of us acts individually, but the fact is amplified when we are found singing in unison, under the banner of YU. It is for precisely this reason that when we do positive things - like taking an active interest in the University's workforce - we become an incredible testament to Jewish standards, values, and visions.

Over the past semester students have experienced the warm appreciation of the staff. What workers appreciate most is the students' active interest in their welfare. There is a beautiful expression of gratitude on the worker's face when he finds out that there are students who take an active concern in his wellbeing.

Please consider it a necessity to become part of a committee that brings our values to life in such a real and tangible way.

See you at the next meeting.