OH NO, NOT SOME MORE!

When last we spoke of this matter, boys and girls, we had the people at Agri Processors calling the Forward anti shechitah. They could do that because the Forward has a history as a labor favoring, anti religious paper. Even though that has mostly changed, the Rubashkin publicity apparatus felt that they could tap into that history, and, more important, get away with it because the Chapeau Noir community revels in feeling as if they are being attacked. (For proof of that, just read just about any advertorial published by Marvin Schick.)

So now the Jewish Week of NY carries a front page story announcing that the Federal Govt. is looking at all of the shechitah houses. We do give the Rubashkins credit- they at least admit that the Govt. contacted them. Some of the others won’t comment at all. We should note also that the Jewish Week is sensitive to Jewish issues and only carries ads for Kosher restaurants. No one can call them anti shechita.

So where’s the beef? Although it is not totally clear at this point, it seems that the Govt is looking into market collusion between the big kosher slaughterers. Specifically, it appears that they are looking into price fixing and market share fixing.

In truth, the charge of market share might be less than meets the eye. By mutual agreement, if I do meat for Lubavitch, then you do meat for Satmar and we do not encroach on each other’s territory. This has more to do with market realities (each group will not buy the other’s hashgacha) and a notion of hasagat gvul (not encroaching on another’s boundary.) If the Govt. is looking into that, there is not much to say on the matter. They will discover that this is not market fixing.

On the other hand, the talk about price fixing is one that we all should be very concerned about. A spokesperson for one of the companies said that in the small world of kosher slaughter houses, owners know each other and may socialize with each other from time to time. Yikes, sounds like code words to us!

If it turns out that there has been price fixing, the various hashgacha agencies better be prepared to do something! For if so, then those companies will have ruptured the trust that needs to exist between them and the Jewish community.

On a secondary note, the article in the Jewish Week pointed out that AgriProccesors does indeed pay the lowest pay scale, and that the number of violations against Agri is more than fifty percent of the total number of violations filed against all Iowa plants.

It just gets worse and worse. How much more is there to come in this disgraceful saga?