Kosher Consumers Feeling Sting of Worksite Immigration Raid

Todd Levine of Larry Levine’s Kosher Meats & Deli stands with customer Sandy Rosenbaum. (Photos: Fred Vainas, jewishjournal.org)

The federal government's raid on Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, on May 12, 2008, was the largest worksite immigration raid in U.S. history, yet it caught the attention of few national media, wrote Ben Harris in a Jewish Journal commentary.

On July 11, 2008, Julia Preston of the New York Times reported that a Spanish court interpreter for the nearly 400 undocumented workers said that the workers "did not fully understand..the rights most of them had waived....Most did not understand that they were in criminal court...[and they] did not understand what was going on."

The following article is from the JewishJournal.org.

When the nation's largest manufacturer of kosher meats runs into legal troubles, the ripple effects are felt on dining room tables and in wallets across the nation.

While Agriprocessors - the producer of nearly 60 percent of the nation's kosher meat and 40 percent of its poultry - is struggling to recover after federal workers raided the plant, detaining 400 of its immigrant workers in May, the company's output of meat continues to be greatly curtailed.

Interviews with several families on the North Shore indicate that they are able to find meat from other manufacturers, but Agriprocessor's woes are creating a shortage. That, coupled with soaring gas prices, have driven up meat and poultry prices significantly, causing a local consumer to say that eating kosher is becoming an extravagance.

"I think it's getting to be a luxury for families to keep kosher and I think that's a tragedy," said Lynn, Mass., resident Ben Entine. "I feel strongly about kosher food and Jewish education - those are the foundations on which the community depends."

Larry Levine of Larry Levine's Kosher Meats & Deli of West Peabody, Mass., said he has been purchasing meat and poultry from a New York manufacturer rather than Agriprocessors. Levine is not alone. With supply curtailed, many are now buying from smaller manufacturers.

Prices at Levine's are now on average 25 to 50 cents per pound costlier on all cuts of meat, he said. Despite the shortages, Levine said he is able to provide his customers with what they need either from his store or through his cooperative - a delivery service in Greater Boston.

At the Swampscott, Mass., Stop & Shop, the kosher meat cases were fully stocked with glatt kosher meat from Meal Mart, not an Agriprocessors' label. Prices ranged from 80 percent ground beef at $5.99 a pound to boneless rib eye steak at $15.99 a pound. Beef pepper steak cost $7.99 a pound; London Broil cost $6.49 a pound; and top blade steak was selling for $9.99 a pound.

Maier Cywiak, who runs Specialty Provision, a wholesale and cooperative kosher supplier, said he purchases his products from Canada and New York, and only "in a pinch" from Agriprocessors, and only with the customers' knowledge.

"It's a shame that something like this had to happen," he said. "I've heard that Agriprocessors is also having trouble finding workers to cut beef. That requires skilled labor."

Walter Gelerman, one of the family owners of The Butcherie of Brookline, said he could fill 95 percent of consumers' orders. He said meat has risen 10 percent in the last couple of weeks.

"We try not to adjust prices because we are hoping when the supply comes back, things will even out a little, so we sort of eat the difference," he said.

The Butcherie's meat supplier now is Alle Packing of New York and Wise Kosher of Brooklyn for poultry.

"The supply is there, but the logistics, the transportation and the timing" is what causes delays, Gelerman added.

Swampscott's Whole Foods, which carries Wise kosher chicken, was completely out of the product on Monday, July 7.

Asked how he felt about the charges against Agriprocessors - which include hiring illegal immigrants, employing children, paying below minimum wage, keeping abusive supervisors on staff and allegations of inhumane treatment of the animals - Gelerman said he believes that powerful unions attempting to get into the company are behind the meat giant's problems.

"The unions want to get into Agriprocessors and the company doesn't want them in," he added.

But not everybody sees it that way. A liberal Orthodox activist group called Uri L'Tzedek is so concerned with the charges against the food supplier that it organized a boycott of Agriprocessors.

Late last month [June 2008], Uri L'Tzedek leaders released an open letter to Agriprocessors owner Aaron Rubashkin asking that the company obey all applicable labor laws and that it empower a third party to monitor its progress.

The letter was signed by 1,300 people, including prominent Jewish leaders who called for a boycott of Agriprocessors' products, and of restaurants that sell them, until demands for reform are met.

Uri L'Tzedek published a list of kosher meat suppliers other than Agriprocessors. The list includes: Empire Poultry, Alle Packaging, Meal Mart, Vineland, Kiryas Joel chicken, Marvid chicken, Chai Chicken, International Glatt, Wise Organic, Solomon's Natural, 999, Kol Foods, Kosherbison.com, Abeles & Hyman, and Arcadia Farms.

Source: JewishJournal.org

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Michael Winters cuts beef at the Levine’s West Peabody, Mass., market. (Photos: Fred Vainas, jewishjournal.org)