Posted on 05/15/2007 10:26:42 PM PDT by Pikamax
Grand Island, Neb. - Nearly 100 Muslim workers have quit their jobs at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant because their prayer times weren't accommodated.
"They kind of issued the company an ultimatum," said Dan Hoppes, president of Local 22 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
"They went in before the shift started (Monday) and said that they'd go unless they could pray when they needed to," Hoppes said today.
Sean McHugh, a spokesman for Swift at its Greeley headquarters, said breaks are governed by a labor contract and that all employees are told about them during orientation for all new workers.
"The company has a history of making reasonable accommodations for legitimate religious practices," he said Monday. "Swift has experienced no issues related to religious accommodations in recent years.
Hoppes said he believes the workers, who he said were Somali immigrants, had been offered jobs at a Kansas plant that would give them time off for prayer and make other accommodations for their religion. He didn't know the name of the company.
Hoppes said the union contract contained no provisions for prayer, which for many Muslims is a minimum of five times a day.
"They had talked to a couple of our representatives," Hoppes said, "but you can't go into the middle of the contract and renegotiate those types of things. You've got a lot of different nationalities at the plant, a lot of different religious beliefs."
He said the company had tried to work with the Muslim employees, telling them: "'These are your break times. Can you fit it into that?'" But, Hoppes said, "if you take a hundred people out of that line, you gotta shut down the line. ... It's a real touchy subject."
McHugh said Swift's 15,000-member domestic workforce is "a diverse mix of ethnicities and religious faiths." He said Swift expects no significant setbacks from the resignations.
Good.
I’d say, Dont let the door hitcha where the good Lord splitcha!
I hope that wift gave them all a can of pork sausages when they kicked their turban headed butts out the back door. This is getting insane, the freakin muzzies think they own the world and that everyone else ought to accomodate THEM.....I hope they get de frigging ported.
Meadow Muffin
Doesn’t Swift make pork products? Ewwwww... Don’t want muslims anywhere near any food I’m going to eat, pork or not. If it’s not “halal,” the b***ards probably shovel s*** into it anyway, knowing that only infidels are going to eat it.
Good. More jobs for illegals.
Hmmmm....
I wonder if this is a CAIR-organized setup for a lawsuit, along the lines of the “flying imams” situation.
We shall see.
I’m a business owner and I understand the concept of ‘reasonable accommodations’ but the world doesn’t stop just because someone feels the need to cease work and formally pray. If I had to accommodate muslim prayer times, I’d have to hire someone specifically to be on call during those periods. It ain’t gonna happen.
AWWWWW...
Well blow me up a river.
Recent headline:
“Feds raid Swift meat-packing plants at six locations across country”
Appears Swift meat-packing is swiftly chewing through the available cheap foreign labor supply.
I’m just stunned there are 100 Muslims in Grand Island, Nebraska.
Evil is everywhere.
LOL. Geez, I’d give ‘em extra knives or box cutters if they promise to head straight to an outlet.
“...legitimate religious practices...”
Well, get back to us when anything in the Muslim world resembles that.
bttt
100 Muslim workers have quit their jobs at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant because their prayer times weren’t accommodated.
Good.
next on their agenda, foot washin’ basins for the company time prayers
They are trying to backdoor Sharia. First, they get employers to bow to their demands. Well, nanny-nanny-boo-boo, it didn’t work this time.
There are going to be a LOT more of these kinds of stories, mark my words. They have only begun their quest for special rights and observances. We will be hearing about Halal foods at Hooters next.
If they cannot get Sharia into this country by any kind of legislation (which is up for grabs in a completely dem-controlled congress and whitehouse) then they will go for judicial fiat and backdoor sharia, as they have done in Europe and attempted in parts of Canada.
Sounds like they had everything set up at the Kansas plant before they walked into Swift with their demands. Good day for Swift and the state of Nebraska, bad day for Kansas.
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