Justice Committee

The Jewish Alliance Anti-Sweatshop Coalition

Concern over sweatshop conditions both here and abroad has led to the development of sweatshop disclosure legislation.

More and more, in this depressed economy, there is pressure to cut the production costs of products. Before we buy products, we need to know how they are made. Is our purchase supporting the exploitation of workers in sweatshops? Many of our Jewish immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents worked in sweatshops and then helped to build trade unions in order to protect workers. Today, partly as a result of the global economy, and partly because we continue to have an immigrant population than can be exploited here within the USA, sweatshops continue to be a significant issue.

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

JALSA will continue to provide educational materials to oppose the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, a constitutional amendment before state legislators meeting in Constitutional Convention. If the amendment receives 50 affirmative votes, it will be on a future election ballot and could -- in four years time, overturn the recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision that interpreted the Massachusetts constitution on the issue of civil marriage. The SJC has ruled that the Massachusetts Constitution does not allow different classes of citizenship and therefore the Commonwealth cannot prohibit same sex marriages. Same sex couples must have the same rights and benefits as others in the Commonwealth. Therefore, the state must allow civil marriages between same sex couples. H 3190 would overturn that decision and disallow any recognition of legal rights of same sex couples.

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