Kosher poultry slaughterers will strike Thursday in all markets not supervised by Kashruth Association rabbis, it was learned yesterday, as a result of an agreement reached by shochtim and the Association late Monday night.
With the shochtim supporting the rabbinical poultry ban, the rabbis of the Kashruth Association yesterday conferred at the Hotel Pennsylvania to settle internal difficulties. A number of rabbis demanded that market supervision be organized on a borough basis, while others maintained that it must be centralized in the city-wide Kashruth Association.
Judge Otto Rosalsky, Mayor LaGuardia’s special poultry mediator, urged centralized supervision. He suggested that a committee of laymen be appointed to handle financial matters involved in supervision so that there could be no possibility of anyone accusing the rabbis of having any financial interest in it. Speaking of debts which the Kashruth Association has entailed, Judge Rosalsky said that he had secured releases from most of the creditors.
The association decided to table the question of centralized supervision until next week so that the rabbis could give serious thought to the problem. A committee of five was meanwhile appointed to apportion representation in the Central Kashruth Association among the boroughs.
The settlement between the rabbis and shochtim was reached at a closed conference in the chambers of Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, Monday, and ratified by the shochtim in a mass meeting at the Great Central Palace, 90 Clinton street, that night.
WILL BE REPRESENTED
The settlement provides:
1. Shochtim will have representatives in the Vaad Kakashruth (Kashruth Association).
2. The shochtim will be autonomous in all economic matters.
3. In a dispute between a rabbi and shochet in a market, an arbitration board of rabbis and shochtim will have final authority.
4. Unemployed shochtim will be employed in markets to attach the metal leg-bands required by the Association.
5. The rabbinate will support the shochtim in all economic demands.
6. In markets where shochtim are striking or where non-union shochtim are employed, rabbis will not permit attachment of the metal leg-bands which certify kosher slaughtering.
The agreement takes effect Thursday.
The decision of the shochtim to support the Kashruth Association marked a reversal of a vote of 145 to 118, two weeks ago, to defy the religious ban on unlabeled poultry and continue working in markets not under contract, with the Association.
Retailers of poultry — butchers and poultry dealers — were still firm in their decision yesterday to boycott labeled poultry.
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