Don't Forget Teshuva

Yesterday, Rabbi Avi Finegold wrote a very nice editorial in The Jew and the Carrot about Agriprocessors that I am starting to agree with.
I was very fiery about this issue after reading allegation after allegation on how terrible that place is. It was their corrupt slaughtering practices that led me to become a vegetarian. I am still very concerned about what is going on behind the doors at Agriprocessors (and all kosher slaughterhouses for that matter) and I am sad that I couldn't attend the interfaith protest there with Rabbi Morris Allan, but after speaking to my Chabad rabbi about the situation I have started to think about it in a different way.
He has a very close relationship with the Rubashkins because Madison is not so far away from Postville, so he drives down there occasionally to get meat and he has been squarely defending them the whole time. Now I think it is a little naive to think that they are completely free of blame, I think there is A LOT of blame to be said for their labor issues, but he reminded me that it is important to differentiate between allegations and convictions.
Until yesterday, the court hadn't ruled anything and all we had to believe was the word of the workers against the word of the management. Now when it comes to huge companies like this that have a history of snaking their way around the law, I think it makes more sense to take the workers complaints more seriously than the management's defense, but (as my rabbi reminded me) both the American legal system and the mishnaic legal system work on the assumption of innocent before proven guilty. At the same time, I could never put all my faith in the American legal system because I know how corrupt it can get - criminals go free and innocent people suffer.
Fortunately, yesterday the courts filed the first criminal charges against Agriprocessors, and I'm sure there are much more to come but, as Rabbi Avi Finegold suggests, especially in the month of Elul, we can't deny them the possibility of teshuva. Apparently, they have already begun.
In response to Governer Chet Culver's denunciation of the plant's labor practices, Agri released a statement explaining how they've helped out Postville and how they're improving the conditions at the plant. Additionally, immediately after the child labor charged were filed against Agri, the OU threatened to remove its hekhsher and almost immediately Agri has made statements about changing for fear of losing the OU. The Jewish Star reports that the OU is even trying to unionize Agri, which would be a big step in the right direction.
So, without trying to sound like an apostate of social justice, we should open our hearts to Agriprocessors. We should continue to criticize them, expect future criminal charges, and take their apologies with a grain of salt (since they didn't lead to much teshuva in the past), but we shouldn't turn a cold shoulder. Ahavat Yisrael even includes corrupt meat murderers and we have to hope that they will change for the better.

Agriprocessors Labor Issues

While Agriprocessors is dealing with their legal troubles, they are ignoring the legal issues of their former employees. Not only did Agri put their workers in the position to be deported or to stay in jail for 6-8 months because of social security fraud (even though the workers don't even know what a social security number is) they are leaving the rest of their families to starve. I guess since their workers were illegal immigrants (who Agri imported from their native countries) they have no responsibility to help out their families who now have no one to support them.
As the New York Times editorial on the same subject argues:

No one is denying that the workers were on the wrong side of the law. But there is a profound difference between stealing people’s identities to rob them of money and property, and using false papers to merely get a job. It is a distinction that the Bush administration, goaded by immigration extremists, has willfully ignored. Deporting unauthorized workers is one thing; sending desperate breadwinners to prison, and their families deeper into poverty, is another.