The United Auto Workers union is currently in the news as thousands of employees from 13 non-union automakers—including BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo—move to join. As employees, you all have so much in common: you are the people who bring movement to millions of Americans. The companies you work for also have something in common: they all have ties to the genocide of the Uyghur people in China. I am asking you, the members of the UAW, to use your power to advocate not only for yourselves, but for the voiceless Uyghur people, whose forced labor is being exploited by your employers.
On a personal level, I know what happened to family members of mine in the Holocaust and how many automobile companies turned a blind eye during World War II. None of us want to see that happen again. You do not need me, a rabbi, to tell you about organized labor. I know this. I have no doubt that as a union, you have clear priorities of your own in terms of the kind of workplaces you want to create. But as a spiritual leader who has dedicated his life to combatting hate, I do feel that I might have something small to offer when it comes to creating a moral workplace. Unions like congregations have a holy purpose: to enhance the dignity of people and more specifically in the case of unions to provide for the sustenance of their families through dignified work.
There is no soft way to say this: The Chinese Communist Party is accused of perpetuating a genocide against the Uyghur people, an ethnic Muslim minority that they are attempting to wipe out by use of forced sterilization, internment in so-called "reeducation" camps, separation of children from their families, and systematic torture and sexual violence. The forced labor of Uyghur detainees is used in factories that place car parts in nearly every single car sold in America. It is up to you, the employees of car manufacturers, to demand transparency from your employers. Are they sourcing from companies that rely on forced labor? If so, are they willing to create an exit strategy? Will they commit to a plan to move toward creating cars that are free from forced labor?
"Why us?" you might ask. "Why should this be up to the employees?" I hear you: I know it is risky and complicated to advocate in the workplace, unionized or not. But the truth is, this problem extends so deeply into the supply chain that there may be little the American government can do to solve the problem, even with the very well-intentioned Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Nor is there any way for consumers to boycott every single car manufacturer on the staggering list of brands at risk of sourcing from companies linked these abuses. And of course, we all know the sad truth that change is unlikely to start at the top with CEOs. That is why help for the Uyghur people must come from you. Everyone wants their work to feel meaningful and it is indeed possible to be successful at pressuring employers to swear off forced Uyghur labor.
If I asked us to guess the biggest factor in job satisfaction, we might guess pay. We'd be wrong. Pay is of course hugely important, but employees consistently report that the biggest factor in job satisfaction is feeling appreciated. We all want to feel that the work we do matters. Feeling that we are part of an ethical enterprise is part of creating a meaningful workplace—one that is concerned with environmental impact, the rights of workers, respect for diversity, closing the wage gap, and not relying on the forced labor of a people targeted for genocide.
I am not naïve. I know it is no small ask to hold huge corporations accountable in this way; I know, too, that the Chinese Communist Party itself is notoriously vindictive, which is a hearty disincentive from action for your employers. More broadly, I know that the world is a messy place, and that some level of exploitation is intractable from the global trade industry. However, even if nobody can have perfectly clean hands, there must be some lines that we are all willing to draw. When it comes to the Uyghur people, we are way past any line of shared humanity.
Regarding our obligation to the Uyghur people, the inspiring humanitarian Elisha Wiesel, son of the extraordinary Elie Wiesel, has referred to his father's 1986 Nobel acceptance speech: "What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone."
The men, women, and children of the Uyghur people are crying out to you. They do not have the freedom to fight for themselves. Their family in America cannot speak out for fear of what the Chinese government will do to those still trapped in the camps. It is up to us. Let us give voice to the voiceless, make visible the unseen.
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the author of 25 books on Jewish Ethics.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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