The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Politics & RKBA => Topic started by: Hazcat on August 05, 2008, 05:53:30 AM
-
Plant Drops Labor Day For Muslim Holiday
More Than Half Of Tyson Plant's Workforce Muslim
POSTED: 12:18 pm CDT August 1, 2008
UPDATED: 3:06 am CDT August 2, 2008
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- Some workers at a local plant will no longer to be able to take their Labor Day holiday because of religious reasons.
Survey: Drop Labor Day? | Scroll Below To Post Your Comments | Video
Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.
According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.
Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays -- the same number as the old contract.
Eid al-Fitr -- which falls on Oct. 1 this year -- marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
Union leaders said implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.
Nineteen-year plant veteran William Pentecost doesn’t agree with the decision.
"I don’t think it's right. I really don't think it's right," he said.
Tyson company spokeswoman Libby Lawson said by phone that, "This isn't a religious accommodation, this is a contractual agreement. The majority asked for it."
The change didn’t bother some workers.
"I think it's fine. I don’t have any problem with it. There's a whole bunch of them here, so they've got to do something for them," said worker John Smith.
"It shouldn't happen. I mean, I think, we're in America, you're in America, I think that they should go with our holidays," Pentecost said.
Channel 4's Cynthia Williams could not reach any of the plant’s Muslim workers, because Channel 4 News' crew was not permitted on the property.
Former employee and Shelbyville resident Anthony Proctor said he thinks what's happening is wrong.
He said he helped build a special Muslim prayer room that's located inside the plant and that no other Tyson facility has been that accommodating for any other religion.
"If we want to go pray, we don’t have one for Christians," he said.
Tyson is headquartered in Arkansas.
Lawson said they consider religious accommodations on a case-by-case basis. She said that so far, no one has asked for any other type of religious prayer room.
No one at the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s regional office answered phone calls placed by Williams on Friday.
A representative in New York said that no one there knew specifics about the new contract with the workers, but a person in research told Williams that holidays aren't usually replaced and are more likely to be added on.
The decision will only apply to workers at the plant who are union members. All other employees at the plant will still have their normal Labor Day holiday.
http://www.wsmv.com/news/17063986/detail.html
-
TOTAL BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-
Vote with your wallets on this one folks, don't buy their product, call them, write them, email them, and send them your store receipts of the products you purchased from their competitors.
Screw them.
-
The really humorous irony is that the labor union gave up Labor Day in a quest for political correctness.
The decision will only apply to workers at the plant who are union members. All other employees at the plant will still have their normal Labor Day holiday.
How many of those 700 Somalis are union members? Maybe the union's move was less PC and more strategic...
-
Real question is how many of the Muslims are FREAKING LEGAL? Like the food processor the Feds raided the other day I bet most are illegal and the suits just turn a blind eye to it.
-
What a disgrace
-
Real question is how many of the Muslims are FREAKING LEGAL? Like the food processor the Feds raided the other day I bet most are illegal and the suits just turn a blind eye to it.
The legal immigrant (probably connected with refugee/political asylum initiatives) Somalis were hired to replace illegal Hispanics that the threat of enforcement forced elsewhere.
-
I'd rather eat steak anyway.................
-
I was able to snap a quick picture of Haz as he wrote this.
-
Path!
When were you by the house? Should have let me know, I would a got ya a Hazarita! ;D
-
I know Dick Bond (Tyson CEO) and would bet he is none to _____ happy with this but probably has his ______ in the fire to do it. Possibly a tough labor market but would bet they are trying to dump the workers behind this. As well, my understanding is that Don Tyson who has stepped down from day-to-day operations, is a born-again Christian.
-
>:( >:( The world is going to hell in no time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm tired of all the crap about the somales, I still remember about the day they draged & stomped our military people !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And now we cow touw to them that is total CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!............. I wouldn't trust any of them as far as i can spit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!