An Update on Rubashkin

As a comment to my earlier post on Rubashkin's "kosher" meat plant noted, it appears from the Hekhsher Tzedek blog that the Rabbinical Assembly (the Conservative Movement's rabbinical arm) has issued a statement generally condemning Rubashkin. Here's an excerpt:

In light of continuing disturbing allegations of unacceptable worker
conditions at the Agriprocessors Plant in Postville, Iowa, the United Synagogue
of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly are united in calling for a
thorough evaluation by kosher consumers of the appropriateness of purchasing and
consuming meat products produced by the Rubashkin's label.

Rubashkin's produces kosher meat primarily under the Aaron and David label
at the Agriprocessors facility. It is a major producer of kosher meat and
poultry in the United States. The allegations about the terrible treatment of
workers employed by Rubashkin's has shocked and appalled members of the
Conservative Movement as well as all people of conscience. As Kashrut seeks to
diminish animal suffering and offer a humane method of slaughter, it is bitterly
ironic that a plant producing kosher meat be guilty of inflicting human
suffering.

The Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism will
immediately release an advisory to its members and constituents to evaluate the
appropriateness of consuming Rubashkin products until the current situation is
addressed. This advisory extends not only to products purchased on the retail
level but to meat and poultry consumed in restaurants and at private functions,
such as weddings and bar mitzvahs.

This is a good start, but an "advisory" "evaluat[ing] the appropriateness of consuming Rubashkin products" is not the same as an outright prohibition, which I would like to see. I will stay tuned.

Of interest to locals in Seattle, I called the University Village QFC, which is the largest source of kosher meat in Seattle's North End, and their butcher shop informed me that most of their kosher poultry is Rubashkin (some frozen items are from Empire), but most of their kosher red meat is from Meal Mart (although some is from Rubashkin, apparently because some Chabad Jews will only eat Chabad-hekhshered meat).