Professor Cyril Domb
The Torah pays special attention to the duty of employers to their hired workmen whose position is regarded as very vulnerable: "You shall not oppress a hired workman - you shall pay his wages every day, for he is poor and yearns for them." (1) Unfortunately the industrial revolution led to mass exploitation of employees by avaricious and well-entrenched employers. The workers were forced to toil for long hours in unhealthy conditions and the threat of dismissal and unemployment always hovered over them. By banding together in organized professional groups the workers were able to fight against exploitation and establish reasonable conditions of employment. During the first half of the twentieth century, unions grew steadily in numbers and strength, and even characteristic Jewish professions like the Hebrew teachers and shochtim became unionized. Torah authorities began to discuss the halakhic status of unions. R. Moshe Feinstein (2), in answer to a question, pointed out that unions w
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