Business Ethics Motivated by Biblical Teaching

 

“THIS is how you treat people!” I proclaimed, a quiver in my voice.

Just before Christmas, 1995 a textile mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts was destroyed by fire. About 1,400 people worked at Malden Mills. The owner of the mill, Aaron Feuerstein, spoke before the employees’ days after the fire. “I am not throwing people out of work two weeks before Christmas,” was his famous line. Feuerstein then and there declared that he would pay his workers their wages, even though the mill was closed, and they could not work.

It was early in 1996 that an NBC News feature covered the incident. Feuerstein’s reputation as a beneficent corporate citizen soared. Feuerstein continued to pay his workers for months – without a product being produced – while the mill was being rebuilt. I showed that news story to my high school students for years, always ending with my line above, “THIS is how you treat people.”

Aaron Feuerstein was a rich man who had made millions from his plant. He could have easily, as he said in his first news interview, claimed the insurance money and walked away. But he didn’t. Feuerstein not only continued to pay his employees, but he also rebuilt the mill, and created an innovative, cold-weather material. The mill continued to produce for another decade before economic hardships closed its doors.

Aaron Feuerstein was 95 when he died this week. I just read the Boston Globe story, tears filling my eyes. My mind has not changed since I first read of Feuerstein’s care for his workers. As you might imagine, his workers cheered and wept in response to Feuerstein’s magnanimous empathy toward them in 1995 and beyond. As one man remembered in the NBC feature, “I have never seen so many grown men cry.”

I can only imagine how long the funeral procession will be for Mr. Feuerstein. When asked what he wanted his tombstone to read, his response was immediate, “Hopefully it’ll be, ‘He done his damnedest,’ you know, that I didn’t give up and I try to do the right thing.”

Something that is missing in all the mainstream reportage of Mr. Feuerstein is the answer to the question, “Why did he do it? Why did he continue to pay his workers when he didn’t have to?” The answer, according to Mr. Feuerstein, is found in the Torah, the Jewish law code embedded in the Bible books Genesis through Deuteronomy.

Feuerstein was invited to speak at MIT the year after the mill fire and his generosity on behalf of his workers. It was in that audience of MIT business leaders Feuerstein revealed the answer to the question, “Why?” He said,

“I remember as a young boy, five or six years old, sitting at my father’s table,” he told the audience during the question-and-answer period. The discussion was about his grandfather who, when he started the business, insisted on paying his workers before sunset. His father explained that the practice was cited in the Torah, in the book of Deuteronomy (24: 14-15). Mr. Feuerstein read the passage in Hebrew and English.

`You should not oppress the worker. He is poor and needy, whether he be thy brethren or a stranger’–and by stranger they meant all people, all faiths, all races,” he said. “`And the very day of his work, you have to pay him his wages. And the sunset should not appear upon these unpaid wages because he can’t afford it, and he would cry out against you to God, and you would have sinned.’” [“Malden Mills Owner Applies Religious Ethics to Business.”]

“THIS is how you treat people,” is based on Hebraic law. Employers everywhere still have much to learn from Mr. Feuerstein. And I, tears still filling my eyes, want everyone to know the story of Malden Mills and the Hebrew teaching that motivated one man’s care for others. [First published 6 November 2021 at MarkEckel.com]

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  1. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    The mill continued to produce for another decade before economic hardships closed its doors.

    I wonder whether the economic hardships were government-induced.

    • #1
  2. Mark Eckel Coolidge
    Mark Eckel
    @MarkEckel

    JoelB (View Comment):

    The mill continued to produce for another decade before economic hardships closed its doors.

    I wonder whether the economic hardships were government-induced.

    Multiple factors, not the least of which may have been “the great recession” – to your point!

    • #2
  3. Bunsen Coolidge
    Bunsen
    @Bunsen

    Oh what would our world be like if we had more Feuersteins.  There is a Man to look up to and do our damnedest to emulate.

    • #3
  4. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    May his memory be a blessing.

    • #4
  5. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Bunsen (View Comment):

    Oh what would our world be like if we had more Feuersteins. There is a Man to look up to and do our damnedest to emulate.

    Probably the best way to make sure we don’t is to use government to force him to pay so that he will be too busy being resentful to make the moral choice. 

    And the workers will cheer not him, but the government. 

    • #5
  6. Brian Clendinen Inactive
    Brian Clendinen
    @BrianClendinen

    Was he able to claim some of this on his insurance though? I am not so sure this was 100% out of pocket.

    • #6
  7. Mark Eckel Coolidge
    Mark Eckel
    @MarkEckel

    Brian Clendinen (View Comment):

    Was he able to claim some of this on his insurance though? I am not so sure this was 100% out of pocket.

    Correct. As I recall insurance paid 3/4, he put in a quarter of his own funds for the rebuild of the building.

    The monies to pay his people, however, I believe, came from him. I could be wrong. It’s been years since I’ve considered the issue of paying employees.

    • #7
  8. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Mark Eckel (View Comment):

    Brian Clendinen (View Comment):

    Was he able to claim some of this on his insurance though? I am not so sure this was 100% out of pocket.

    Correct. As I recall insurance paid 3/4, he put in a quarter of his own funds for the rebuild of the building.

    The monies to pay his people, however, I believe, came from him. I could be wrong. It’s been years since I’ve considered the issue of paying employees.

    I got the impression at the time that he paid all wages out of pocket.

    • #8
  9. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Mark Eckel (View Comment):

    Brian Clendinen (View Comment):

    Was he able to claim some of this on his insurance though? I am not so sure this was 100% out of pocket.

    Correct. As I recall insurance paid 3/4, he put in a quarter of his own funds for the rebuild of the building.

    The monies to pay his people, however, I believe, came from him. I could be wrong. It’s been years since I’ve considered the issue of paying employees.

    I got the impression at the time that he paid all wages out of pocket.

    I did too. I’ve come across this wonderful story in many business leadership books I’ve read. He paid for this out of his own pocket and out of the company’s money, which at that time were practically one and the same. 

    He is truly a kind and generous person. 

    • #9
  10. Brian Clendinen Inactive
    Brian Clendinen
    @BrianClendinen

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Mark Eckel (View Comment):

    Brian Clendinen (View Comment):

    Was he able to claim some of this on his insurance though? I am not so sure this was 100% out of pocket.

    Correct. As I recall insurance paid 3/4, he put in a quarter of his own funds for the rebuild of the building.

    The monies to pay his people, however, I believe, came from him. I could be wrong. It’s been years since I’ve considered the issue of paying employees.

    I got the impression at the time that he paid all wages out of pocket.

    Just because he paid out of pocket up front does not mean that was the end result. I am not saying he did not care about his employees. But I am skeptical with out more details how much he really gave. If he had disruption of business policy. He was getting massive amount of the lost revenue. He might of been able to claim their salaries as an ongoing expense because he could claim he could not afford to lose these skilled workers.

    • #10
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