How I missed this when I linked to this article last week I don't know, although I was probably transfixed by Ronn Torossian's thuggish, abusive emails calling a former employee a cunt. Anyway, as Archie rightly points out in a comment to another post, Ronn Torossian and 5WPR are a true match for Rubashkin and Agriprocessors.
Why?
…According to Melissa Weiss' lawyer, she found out soon after she was hired at 5W last month that Ronn was violating the law by miscategorizing employees and not paying them overtime. "Ms. Weiss reported these violations to Mr. Torossian and he threatened to fire her and any employee not happy with their status," her lawyer writes. "Soon thereafter, Ms. Weiss was terminated and her final pay was withheld, leading her to bring a small claims action for her earned pay."
Weiss' story is not an unfamiliar one. We've received tips telling us the same thing. Among the claims, tipsters say that 5W does not pay overtime to low-level employees, in violation of labor law; that Ronn has docked employees for a full day's pay, or a vacation day, for being 15 minutes late to work, causing several people to resign; and that employees don't get proper comp time after working 7 days in a row or more.…
You have to love this. Torossian is a close personal friend of Rabbi Avi Weiss, and grew up in Weiss' Riverdale synagogue. Torossian is also close to Rabbi Benny Elon and to other right wing Israeli rabbis, and is a former head of the right wing Jewish youth movement Betar in America.
Torossian has portraits of Jabotinsly – who, I believe, would have been appalled by Torossian's language and by his coarsening of popular culture – and the late Chabad-Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson hanging in his office.
A very similar portrait of the late Rabbi Schneerson hangs in Agriprocessors' offices and in the homes of various members of the extended Rubashkin family.
But it is more than a picture that brings Torossian and Rubashkin together, it seems. The two are joined by a common disregard for human decency and law, and the abuse of people far weaker than they are.
They are both thugs and bullies. And they both believe themselves to be "absolved" for their sins by the rabbis and the causes they serve.
[Hat Tip: Archie Bunker.]
The post that broke the story.
The post that broke the story, part 2.
Agriprocessors / Rubashkin mistreatment of workers and related issues.
Rubashkin / Agriprocessors index page.
Previous 5W Scandal Posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 14 & 15.