Meatingplace.com
Agriprocessors'
External Stakeholders are Getting Restless
By
Lisa M. Keefe
While a representative
for Agriprocessors Inc.
says the company
continues to rebuild its
business after a May
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement raid saw the
arrest of about
one-third of its
employees, some
customers have switched
to other sources of
kosher meats, and other
interested parties are
encouraging boycotts of
Agriprocessors'
products.
"The company's main
issue over the last
couple of weeks has been
to try to replace the
workers and head toward
full production,"
Menachem Lubinsky,
representing
Agriprocessors, told
Meatingplace.com.
Lubinsky is president
and CEO of Lubicom
Marketing Consulting, a
PR, advertising and
marketing, and special
events management firm
in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Giant Eagle Corp. in
Pittsburgh, meanwhile,
confirmed that it had
dropped Agriprocessors
as its supplier of
kosher meats. A
spokesman for the
company told
Meatingplace.com that
the company was
supplying its 223
supermarkets in four
mid-Atlantic states with
goods from other kosher
processors.
Boycotts get underway
And two liberal
organizations with the
Jewish community are
encouraging boycotts of
Agriprocessors' goods.
Uri L'tzedek, described
as an initiative of
students at the liberal
Orthodox rabbinical
seminary Yeshivat
Chovevei Torah in New
York City, formally
began encouraging Jews
to buy competing
products on Monday,
after what it felt was a
fruitless meeting
between its leadership
and Agriprocessors
representatives.
"We are hopeful that
Agriprocessors will
provide what they
promised at our meeting
with them last week: the
document that will
detail Agriprocessors'
policy towards the
rights of its workers,
and transparency," one
of Uri L'tzedek's
leaders, Shmuly
Yanklowitz, wrote in an
e-mail to
Meatingplace.com. "As of
this morning, however,
we are still waiting.
Therefore, we are in
turn are waiting to buy
Rubashkins' products."
Another group, Ameinu,
also is urging a boycott
of Agriprocessors'
brands.
Still, Lubinsky said,
"The boycott is not
having any effect on the
company because the
company still is trying
to meet demand from all
over the country." And
as for Giant Eagle's
decision to replace the
company's goods with
competitors' products,
Lubinsky said the
company isn't concerned
in the long run, because
in 70 percent of the
markets it serves,
Agriprocessors is the
only kosher processor
supplying the area.