Posted on 09/10/2008 7:58:41 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Talks break down between Muslims and Swift
Chris Casey
Talks between JBS Swift & Co. officials and Muslim workers seeking prayer breaks during Ramadan broke down Tuesday afternoon and turned into calls of breach of contract.
The roughly 250 workers, who've been suspended since walking off the job Friday night, say they will not return to work and may take legal action. They also acknowledge they may face mass terminations.
A mid-afternoon meeting between the Muslim representatives and about 80 of the suspended workers grew heated in a downtown Greeley park when the representatives relayed information to the crowd.
When workers learned the company would not allow break times for prayer, many shouted and crowded around a gazebo from which the representatives spoke. Within 30 minutes, workers split into smaller groups and milled around the park.
Complaints of on-the-job discrimination and harassment as well as non-responsive union representation marked the second straight day in which hundreds of Muslims, mostly Somalis who have been hired at Swift in the past year, gathered in the Greeley park.
Graen Isse, an African Swift worker, and several other Muslim workers met with company officials and a union representative for a few hours Tuesday, looking over a two-page list of grievances the Muslims presented. He said company officials verbally agreed to some items, such as requests for more African/Somali supervisors and improved translation for non-English speaking employees.
But Isse said the requested prayer breaks -- a major issue for Muslims at all times but especially during Ramadan -- was rejected by management.
"The thing they didn't agree with was the prayer (breaks)," Isse said. "And that was the whole problem from the start."
Upon hearing that news, a group of disgruntled Muslim workers clustered around Isse and said, "No prayer, no work."
When a union leader said he would assist those suspended by taking their names and Social Security numbers, his offer was ignored.
Kaise Egal, another Muslim representative, said Swift management conveyed that workers would be fired if they took unauthorized breaks. He said officials noted that the suspended workers, if they reported to work Tuesday afternoon, would be disciplined for their actions last week, and if they had another work-related disciplinary action they'd be fired.
Most of the workers expected the company would fire them if they returned to work today.
An official with JBS Swift & Co. did not immediately return calls seeking comment Tuesday afternoon. On Monday, a company official said no workers had been terminated over the Friday incident.
On the matter of breaks, Egal said, "We ask a maximum of 10 minutes" for prayer per shift.
The Muslims said they thought the problem was resolved last Thursday after company officials said the workers could break at 7:30 p.m., earlier than their usual union-contract mandated breaks at about 9:30 p.m.
But they said the company, without advance notice, on Friday didn't grant the 7:30 p.m. breaks and instead mobilized to keep workers on production lines. Workers nonetheless began walking out for breaks and, according to the two-page document, "management and administrative employees started harassing and collecting badges from Muslim workers that took breaks as agreed. ... Management blocked restrooms and break areas and that started massive disturbances and conflicts at the plant."
Fernando Rodriquez, who heads the United Food Commercial Workers Local 7 at Swift, the union that represents production workers, on Tuesday explained details of the collective bargaining contract with the gathered Muslims.
He said when an employee works at least eight hours and 12 minutes in a shift, the company must, in accordance with the union contract, give them three breaks -- two 15-minute spans plus a 30-minute break. "You should be covered for your prayer time," Rodriquez said.
Under that scenario, the Muslim workers' second break on the late shift would be about 7:30 p.m. when most of them end their 12-hour Ramadan daily fasts.
However, workers said, they haven't been getting three breaks.
Amina Warsame, who has worked at Swift for a year, said she regularly works nine hours and gets two breaks. Others said they work as much as 10 to 12 hours and only have two breaks -- a 30-minute break and a 15-minute break.
"We asked the company to give us whatever the union says, and we're happy," Egal said.
Rodriquez said company officials had a different view on the subject of the eight-hour, 12-minute shifts.
"The company claims they were not working the majority of (workers who walked off jobs Friday) more than eight hours, 12 minutes" per shift, he said. Therefore, those workers were entitled only to two breaks per shift.
Isse said Tuesdays' meeting with Swift officials wasn't entirely unproductive. Officials said they would work to get more Somalis in management positions as well as provide interpreters for workers seeking answers to questions, he said.
Omar Clarke, a 10-month Swift employee, said he feels the company is in breach of contract "because they never gave us the third break."
Swift released a statement Monday afternoon that said a group of workers left without authorization Friday, and the matter was discussed with union representatives. "JBS Swift desires to accommodate the religious practices of all employees, provided it can do so reasonably, safely and without undue burden," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Muslims' two-page document outlined a list of grievances that extend beyond the current Ramadan issue, including "supervisors and managers that are constantly discriminating against Muslims."
It also detailed events on Friday evening that included harassing a few Somali women who had gone into a locker room to pray, and a shutdown of drinking fountains.
Khadra Abdullahi, 22, said a supervisor stepped on her back as she was laying on the floor to pray on Friday evening. The supervisor, she said, told her work wasn't the place for exercising and then pushed her against a wall.
Abdi Karim, 23, said he was told he couldn't drink from a fountain Friday evening and "they wouldn't let me go to the bathroom for a regular bathroom break."
Federal law requires firms to accommodate, as best as possible, employees' religious practices.
The Muslim workers said they plan to take the matter to court if they can't reach a settlement with Swift.
This week's actions are rooted in events at the plant on Friday. That afternoon, about 150 non-Muslim Swift workers protested the company's break-time accommodation of the Muslims.
Manny Gonzales, spokesman for the UFCW Local 7, said Tuesday the union objected to what company officials did because it felt "the company was trying to sidestep the union to make this deal with workers. ... It's sort of how you get these sort of disagreements."
While some Muslim workers said their complaints to union representatives have been ignored, Gonzales said the union will support them. He said if the Muslim workers are terminated in a way the union deems unfair, the union will step in to protect their rights and employment.
"Obviously, we want to accommodate the workers so they're able to observe their religious freedoms, and we believe the contract already has language in it that protects the workers' religious freedoms of Ramadan," he said.
The current contract was passed in 2004, when Swift had scant, if any, Muslim workers, and expires in late 2009.
Sam Wantings, a Nigerian who worked for Swift for four months earlier this year, said he saw frequent racial tensions between Latinos and African workers. He said Africans were regularly discriminated against by Latino supervisors.
"It's like two blind people leading each other -- you don't understand them and they don't understand you," Wantings said.
OTHER CASES
Workplace disputes over religious holidays and prayer time have occurred at other meatpacking plants in the nation.
A couple of examples:
* In summer 2007, a handful of Somali workers at a Swift plant in Grand Island, Neb., were fired for walking off the job without permission. The workers said the issue stemmed from attempting to pray at sunset.
* In August, Tyson Foods announced a new agreement with the union at its Shelbyville, Tenn., poultry plant which employs about 250 Somalis out of 1,200 workers.
The Somalis requested Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday that occurs at the end of Ramadan, as a paid holiday off as part of the new five-year collective bargaining agreement. The company first granted the Muslim holiday in lieu of Labor Day, but after union members complained, the company reinstated Labor Day as a paid holiday. Tyson kept Eid Al-Fitr as an additional paid holiday for 2008, meaning the Shelbyville employees this year only will have nine paid holidays instead of the usual eight.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington D.C.-based civil rights and advocacy group, said these kind of disputes are not unusual.
He said his organization hears hundreds of workplace-related complaints a year. He said they are nearly always negotiated to a successful conclusion.
He said the disputes range from businesses making time for Muslim workers to pray to allowing workers to wear a head scarf. Hooper said while finding a solution in a production-line environment frequently is more difficult than in an office environment, one can virtually always be found.
"In these situations, the best solution is open communication, honest communication and a spirit of mutual cooperation," he said.
-- By Nate Miller and Chris Casey
Ever hear the words your fired.
Muslims deserve no special treatment whatsoever, except for constant scrutiny.
I can pray at work whenever I want to. And it interferes with no one and nothing.
Prayer is not the issue. Religious practices in a private work environment are the issue.
Government cannot restrict freedom of religion, but private employers can restrict all sorts of behaviour.
You obviously have never worked at or with a meat packing plant. The unions are brutal and HR can’t just fire anyone but non union management.
they don’t have prayer time for Christians either.
Companies want to hire the cheap labor, put U.S. citizens out of the running, reap higher profits and also fight with the cross-cultural immigrants they do hire. Lots of luck with that whirlwind.
CANNOT POST THIS ENOUGH!
As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:
Nation % Muslim
United States 1.0%
Australia 1.5%
Italy 1.5%
Norway 1.8%
Canada 1.9%
China 2.0%
At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs:
Nation % Muslim
Denmark 2.0%
United Kingdom 2.7%
Germany 3.7%
Spain 4.0%
Thailand 4.6%
From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. (United States).
Nation % Muslim
Switzerland 4.3%
Philippines 5.0%
Sweden 5.0%
The Netherlands 5.5%
Trinida and Tabago 5.8%
France 8.0%
At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world. When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris –car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam - Mohammed cartoons).
Nation % Muslim
Guyana 10.0%
India 13.4%
Israel 16.0%
Kenya 10.0%
Russia 15.0%
After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:
Nation % Muslim
Ethiopia 32.8%
At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:
Nation % Muslim
Bosnia 40.0%
Chad 50.1%
Lebanon 59.7%
From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:
Nation % Muslim
Albania 70.0%
Malaysia 60.4%
Qatar 77.5%
Sudan 70.0%
After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:
Nation % Muslim
Bangladesh 83.0%
Egypt 90.0%
Gaza 98.7%
Indonesia 86.1%
Iran 98.0%
Iraq 97.0%
Jordan 92.0%
Morocco 98.7%
Pakistan 97.0%
Syria 90.0%
Tajikistan 90.0%
Turkey 99.8%
United Arab Emirates 96.0%
100% will usher in the peace of ‘Dar-es-Salaam’ — the Islamic House of Peace — there’s supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim: Nation % Muslim
Yemen 99.9%
Afghanistan 100.0%
Saudi Arabia 100.0%
Somalia 100.0%
Of course, that’s not the case. To satisfy their blood lust, Muslims then start killing each other for a variety of reasons.
Time for Swift to start processing pigs and to have all workers sniffed for weapons by dogs.
No Work , No Pay.. Your Fired...
I work with a very sweet Muslim woman from Bangladesh, she doesn’t demand special breaks or such. She is fasting but that seems to be it. These people sound like rabble-rousers, their asses should be sh*t-canned.
-bflr—
this is just the stupidest thing I can think of currently.
It’s just idiots dealing with idiots and other idiots trying to mediate.
It’s hard to believe that anybody on any side is actually improving their situation (and yet the union still gets to take money from these paychecks....)
“Sam Wantings, a Nigerian who worked for Swift for four months earlier this year, said he saw frequent racial tensions between Latinos and African workers. He said Africans were regularly discriminated against by Latino supervisors.”
....oh, what a tangled web we weave.....
So, shut up, cut and pack the meat, or go the hell back where you came from.
Then, they return the applications for the slightest mess-up and don't even tell you whats wrong. But if you don't do it right the next time, you can't even re-apply. And that's with a lawyer submittin g the paperwork !
Don't tell me these Somali's did all that !
Now we know why business tries so hard to keep their illegal Mexicans.
That’s really an excellant analysis.
Excellent post. Bookmarked.
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