Another perspective from:
http://forward.com/opinion/342535/how-hasidic-owned-bh-photo-store-puts-money-before-gods-word/
How Hasidic-Owned B&H Photo Store Puts Money Before God’s Word
By Ari PaulJune 13, 2016Laundry Workers Center
Muslims have the Kaaba in Mecca. Sikhs have the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Photographers have B&H on the west side of Manhattan.
To call it an audio and visual equipment store is like calling Katz’s Deli a
mere sandwich shop. There’s a reason you’ll hear numerous languages spoken on
the floors of B&H. There’s simply no place on earth that boasts this much
equipment, used and new, with a huge knowledgeable staff, which is why even a
stroll through the store has you rubbing elbows with high-end event
photographers, journalists, studio managers and filmmakers. The whole
mechanized system of bringing requested equipment from the back to the front is
a sight to behold. B&H is managed by Hasidic Jews, mainly of the Satmar sect of
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. What’s astonishing is that the company forgoes sales on
Shabbat and on major Jewish holidays, even through its website. The company can
take itself out of the market for religious observance and still stay
profitable. That’s how amazing this store is.
There is, however, one way that B&H puts money before God’s word, and that’s
the company’s treatment of workers.
In February, the U.S. Department of Labor sued the company for discrimination
against non-white and female warehouse workers in Brooklyn. Several months
prior, citing discrimination and unsafe working conditions, those same workers
voted overwhelmingly to join the United Steelworkers of America.
But the company is now stalling in sitting down to settle a collective
bargaining agreement, worker advocates say. And it’s the reason why more than
200 Jewish religious and community leaders are slated to speak out with the
workers on June 14 outside the iconic store to call on B&H to do the right
thing.
At B&H, We’re Negotiating in Good Faith With Our Workers
Henry PosnerJune 15, 2016
It’s easy enough, in times like this, to simply point to the role that Jews
have played in the establishment of labor unions. But there’s a deeper and more
spiritual element at work here. Even at your most progressive Seder, the story
of Passover is most often a symbol for general liberation; less often is it
told as a story of exploited workers ripping off their chains and rebelling
against exploiters. Put that in the very real historical context of ancient
Egypt — the earliest recorded strike involved tomb builders (although not
Hebrew slaves) striking against Pharaoh Ramses III — and we realize just how
essential justice for workers who create wealth is to Jewish morality.
“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by
injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their
labor,” screams Jeremiah 22:13. “Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker
overnight,” commands Leviticus 19:13. Isaiah goes so far as to call into
question one’s religiosity if he or she oppresses workers. And even the role of
Shabbat, the most holy of routine rituals, invokes the importance of the idea
that all people should be relieved of their labor, regardless of what the labor
is.
Laundry Workers Center
This is why it seems like finding justice for B&H should be easy. Management
simply has to abide by the nation’s labor law and work with the USW to
implement wage rules, safety regulations and working procedures that benefit
everyone. Failure to do this just makes it look as if the hyper-religious
management of B&H has, in the words of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, drowned
the word of God “in the icy water of egotistical calculation.”
This all comes as the ultra-religious Jews of Brooklyn are, rightly or wrongly,
giving the rest of the tribe a bad name. The community is embroiled in the
widening corruption scandal involving the New York City Police Department and
the de Blasio administration. A recent public radio series also exposed the
Satmar community’s reliance on public welfare. And a public official’s
insistence on making special accommodations for Jewish women at a public pool —
at everyone else’s expense — added weight to the impression that this group can
get whatever it wants due to its unmatched political influence in the boroug
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2017 11:51 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: NYC Immigrants strike against union busting
Sephardic, yes. And the Jews of European descent have a really hard time
accepting that there are these black and brown Jews who are supposed to have
equal rights in Israel. One of the first things that I learned from some of my
adoptive families who had lived in Israel, and this was back in the late 70's
and early 80's, was that there was a lot of racial discrimination in Israel
against Jews of color. There was a notorious incident recently, that involved
and Ethiopian Jew. And in Israel, the class structure is such that the people
with wealth and power, are the Ashkinazi Jews.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Frank Ventura
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2017 10:35 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: NYC Immigrants strike against union busting
Miriam, Sepharc jew is the term you were looking for.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2017 10:18 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: NYC Immigrants strike against union busting
You can't necessarily tell the difference between Jews and Gentiles, especially
in New York. And then, of course, there are Ashkenazi Jews (European), Mizraki
Jews, (people of color, and the third group, the name has flown out of my head
but they originated in Spain). And I don't know anything about your experience
in the 80's and 90's, but my husband was Italian, growing up in New York City
many years before you were born. Many of his relatives had olive complexions.
My memory is that they were the people who were doing the targeting, not the
targets of discrimination against people of color. They always had backup. Fred
used to say that if he hadn't been blind, he'd have been a member of the mafia.
However, there was a time, back in the early 1900's, when Jews and Italians
were the objects of discrimination, and that had to do with the fact that they
were factory workers, organizing in the city, to earn a living wage.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Frank Ventura
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2017 3:05 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: NYC Immigrants strike against union busting
Miriam, come on, you're from NYC and you don't know that answer. Look at the
persons last name on the order form, look at their appearance, skin colorspeech
patters, accent, , jewelry etc. Come on I looked (and probably still do) look
like a Hispanic working class guy. Its not rocket science. Of course all of the
above is sterotyping; but that is exactally what they did.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2017 7:38 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: NYC Immigrants strike against union busting
Really? And how did they know who was Jewish and who was Gentile?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Frank Ventura
Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2017 11:43 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: NYC Immigrants strike against union busting
I remember shopping at B&H in the early 90s and being followed around the store
because of the tone of my skin. Also they have different prices for Jews than
gentiles for the same products.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2017 10:41 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] NYC Immigrants strike against union busting
https://socialistaction.org/2017/05/13/nyc-immigrants-strike-against-union-busting/
NYC Immigrants strike against union busting
/ 13 hours ago
May 2017 B&H workersBy MARTY GOODMAN
— NEW YORK — B&H Photo, the nation’s largest non-chain photo store, announced
during contract negotiations plans to shut down two warehouses in Brooklyn and
move facilities 75 miles away to Florence, N.J., by the end of the year. For
330 immigrant B&H warehouse workers who belong to the United Steel Workers
(USW) union, the move will bust their union and destroy their jobs. Some
workers have slaved there for up to 10 years.
The B&H bosses, whose annual revenue exceeds a quarter-billion dollars, have
refused to provide transportation to N.J. for its workers. This blatant
union-busting is a cold-blooded attack on the entire labor movement. The
workers are mostly from Mexico and Central America. We say, “An injury to one
is an injury to all!”
On May 1, May Day, 200 B&H warehouse workers struck against union busting and
in solidarity with the national “day without immigrants,”
which included New York City protests and marches. Outside the Manhattan store
about 100 strikers and supporters held a morning picket, chanting, “What’s
disgusting? Union busting!”
B&H worker Francisco Pimental told the rally, “We are here today to let B&H
know that we, the workers, have the power. We will not allow B&H to leave over
300 workers without a job!” Some supporters shouted, “Boycott B&H!” as they
leafleted customers.
B&H has been hit with $43 million in National Labor Relations Board fines in
suits launched by the USW for racism and sexism, which included “whites only”
toilets, racist pay discrepancies, and discrimination against women, who, if
hired at all, are paid less than men for the same work.
In Nov. 2015, warehouse workers fought and won a union recognition vote by a
dramatic 200 to 88 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Bushwick warehouses. In
February 2016, warehouse workers at the Manhattan store, who do not face
immediate job loss, also unionized.
B&H says it must move by 2018 when its lease with the city expires. The
warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard is adjacent to a major TV/film studio owned
by Doug Steiner, a pal of “progressive” Democratic Party Mayor Bill de Blasio
and a contributor to the mayor’s causes, which includes a proposal for a new
trolley line stopping at the Steiner studios.
The mayor’s campaign to promote corporate media produced in the city stands in
contrast to record homelessness and his re-zoning scheme that will gentrify the
mostly Hispanic northern Manhattan.
B&H is owned by millionaire Herman Schreiber, a member of the Jewish Satmar
Hasidic sect in Brooklyn, who provides B&H jobs for the ultra-orthodox (male)
community. Brooklyn’s orthodox Jewish leaders have delivered big blocks of
votes to de Blasio. In contrast, dozens of other Jewish leaders denounced B&H
abuses.
The B&H organizing drive was spearheaded by New York’s non-profit Laundry
Worker’s Center. In 2012, the LWC successfully organized immigrant workers at
the “Hot and Crusty” bakery on the upscale Upper East Side, documented in the
award winning film, “The Hand That Feeds.”
Conditions at B&H before unionization were a throwback to the 1800s.
“They treated us like animals,” said Amando Girron, a B&H employee for nine
years. Warehouse work included exposure to fiberglass and asbestos, a lack of
water, carrying heavy items alone, working 13 to 16 hour shifts with only one
45-minute lunch break, no safety training, not being permitted to leave the
warehouse for 30 minutes during a fire in 2014, and dismissals of union
supporters.
Rosanne Rodriguez, a LWC co-director, told Socialist Action, “These workers are
a treasure. They are brave and powerful; they’ve been fighting for dignity for
two years. We cannot let this company run away!” Please show your solidarity
when and where you can. Checkout LWCU.org and #BHEXPOSED for picket times,
updates and much more.
Photo: Marty Goodman / Socialist Action
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May 13, 2017 in Labor, Immigration, New York.
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