Part Six
- Explain. Explain to students the circumstances of the deaths of 650 workers when a factory floor in Bangladesh collapsed.
- Discuss. Who is to blame for the conditions in these factories?
- If US companies or stores subcontract the work, does that exonerate them?
- Do US workers have to worry about building collapses and fires like overseas workers? How about illegal immigrant workers in the United States?
- How do unions in the United States today compare to unions a century ago?
- Explain. Explain how the Torah discusses the issue of workers’ rights and safety
- Read an Excerpt from the Living Wage Teshuvah” by Rabbi Jill Jacobs
- Assignment. Ask students to formulate five rules for employers and five rules for employees, sharing their answers and coming up with a comprehensive list. Then, in a roundtable discussion, encourage students to brainstorm ways they can help improve conditions for workers today. Ideas might include:
- E-mailing clothing manufacturers to find out where their clothing is made.
- Questioning retailers about safeguards they have in place to ensure safe working conditions for overseas factory workers.
- Organizing a petition to improve factory conditions.
- Organizing a protest against manufacturers or retailers who do not inspect the factories in which their goods are made.
- Urging manufacturers and retailers to pay employees a living wage.
- Urging manufacturers to provide food, housing, and schooling for workers and their children.
- Refusing to buy clothing from companies who do not care about their workers.
- Discouraging their friends from buying clothing from companies that do not protect their workers.
