Plant workers: Fairness at stake in prayer dispute

Plant workers: Fairness at stake in prayer dispute


GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) -- Melissa Infante sat in her car smoking a cigarette, knowing she was supposed to be packaging meat at the JBS Swift & Co. plant where she's worked for nearly two years.

But she'd walked off the job Thursday morning to protest a schedule change she believes unfairly catered to Muslim workers at the plant, shrugging off warnings from supervisors that she could be fired.

"To me, it's just not fair," Infante said.

On Monday, hundreds of Muslim employees were the first to walk off the job, saying they weren't being allowed to take a break to pray during the holy month of Ramadan. Break times were then altered on the second shift so the Muslim employees, mostly Somali, could make their fourth of five daily prayers at sunset.

Then hundreds of non-Muslim workers walked off the job in counterprotests Wednesday and Thursday morning. Later Thursday, plant managers did an about-face, saying the new break times weren't working.

Company officials have not returned repeated calls from The Associated Press, including a message seeking comment left Thursday.

Tensions have flared elsewhere recently between Muslims workers and officials at other U.S. factories, including Swift's plant in Greeley, Colo. Attorneys for the Council on American-Islamic Relations are now involved as mediators in a similar prayer dispute there.

About 2,500 people work at Swift's Grand Island plant, not counting managers. That includes about 500 Muslims who mostly work the second shift, employees said.

Infante wasn't sympathetic to the Muslim employees, saying her husband, who works the second shift, has had to pick up the slack for co-workers who leave the line for prayer.

The throngs of people gathered outside the plant Thursday echoed similar sentiments, some resorting to expletives to make their case.

Jama Abbi watched through the chain-link fence that ran the length of the plant. He'd walked off the job Monday in solidarity with his fellow Muslim workers, but unlike most of them, Abbi couldn't bring himself to return.

"This job is already hard as it is," he said. "It doesn't need people to make it harder."

Abbi, who said he came to the United States from Somalia two years ago in search of freedom and safety, has heard calls for him to go back to the war-torn country.

He said stories of hour-long breaks have been exaggerated and there have been many misunderstandings about Islam and Somalis in recent days.

"We just asked for five minutes to pray," he said. "That don't hurt nobody."

Plant managers say they have been torn between wanting to accommodate reasonable needs and meeting operational requirements.

Union stewards also find themselves stuck in the middle of the dispute.

It's difficult to work out a contract that's fair for everyone, said Dan Hoppes, president of the Local 22 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Religious rights are worth protecting, he said, but it's tough when you have so many different cultures.

White, Hispanic, African-American and Vietnamese workers mingled Thursday outside an employee entrance to the plant. One man held a handmade sign that read: "Everyone has rights. Be equal!! Be fair!!"

Jacinto Guerrero kept in his pocket a list of needs, a scrap of paper containing words scribbled in Spanish. Breaks at normal times, no religious discrimination, same benefits and privileges, it read.

Guerrero said he comes to work to do his job and so should everyone else.

"You and your religion - it's between you and God," he said. "You don't need to show it to everybody." source

 

What's the difference between a prayer break, bathroom break, stress break or smoke break? Sounds like to much drama in this tight economy.

 

Whenever muslims need somthing it becomes a big issue!

 

Everybody should have the same break allowance whether they are Muslim or not

 

Just do the job you are being paid for. It's not unreasonable.

 

No kidding. The followers of Allah are apparently special.

 

I'm a Christian, I believe there are some jobs that would not be good for me to take. For example, I'm not going to get a job at a strip club and i'm not giong to take a job that would require me to work on Sunday's and Wednesday evenings as those are the times I have set aside to go to church. Likewise, muslims should realize that some jobs might restrict them from taking lengthy and/or frequent breaks, primarily factory type work. They knew what they were getting into when they got the job, so I don't really feel sorry for them at all. Just like I don't feel sorry for people I go to church with that get jobs that require them to stay out of church. There are plenty of other things they could be doing, including selling slurpee's.

 

Are you saying that they are "short bus" type of special?

 

Well, these folks live in a country that gives most Christians (and everyone else) Christmas off, despite very much serious observation of any religious requirement, as well as every Saturday and Sunday for a majority of workers. Jews have enjoyed time off to celebrate High Holidays for many years as part of religious freedom.

Ramadan isn't something these Muslims made up; it is a mandatory religious requirement since the religion was founded. Friday is the Muslim Sabbath, but their day is not frequently given the same status as similar days on the Judeo-Christian calendars.

Before you get all high and mighty about being "treated special" remember that this country publicly celebrates Christian holidays and respects a Christian calendar, despite a separation of church and state and religious "equality".

How come when minorities seek equal treatment, the privileged clamor about special treatment?

On the other hand...this is a meat plant? Are these pious muslims carving up pork? That would be a bigger issue.

 

That was proof you are clueless.....

This is all about special treatment. I have worked jobs that I was required to work on holidays, that is part of getting a job. If you can't handle the work days go elsewhere.

Seems like the whiny group just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger... The UK is bowing down to much of the whining already.

 

Is this what passes for debate in your world? Your insult isn't even grammatical...what tense are you looking for? If it was proof I am clueless, am I now no longer clueless?

And what part of my very reasonable argument are you characterizing as "clueless"? Do you deny that certain religions are given preferential treatment for their observances? This sort of baiting is a poor substitute for a discussion. I assume you have nothing but your nastiness to add.

There is this little thing called the Fourteenth Amendment which guarantees equal protection under the law. Discrimination based on religion is forbidden by a multitude of Federal laws, workers have a right to follow the documented practices of their religion and have reasonable time off without penalty. These workers are not even asking for time off, merely some accommodation which may be inconvenient but is their right.

With a large workforce composed of Muslims (500 at that plant), it is a significant enough issue to find time for mandatory prayers. Perhaps a small chapel and making up the lost time next month could make this workplace efficient and respectful of traditional beliefs.

The fact that you've had a job or two which required you to work holidays is besides the point. If it was the US, you were paid a bonus to do so, and if you had wanted to claim religious exemption from working on a holy day, you would be legally protected by Federal Law.

These people are not asking for anything which is not the legal right of every worker in the US. Reasonable allowance for religious needs is not optional for business. Legally, to forbid workers from practicing their religion is discrimination, even if it is inconvenient.

The issue here is not the right to pray on the job...it is that Muslims are claiming this right. I am not Muslim, nor an observer of Judeo-Christian practices, but fair is fair. Rights don't exist if they do not apply equally to everyone.

This is an empty, vague, whiny complaint. People trying to exercise their religious freedom is not whining. Bitching about work slowdowns in meat plants because gutting more animals is more important than honoring constitutional guarantees...that's whining.

 

The Muslims wanting to take special breaks at certain times of the day is not in any way equatable with people getting Christmas or Thanksgiving off. I mean unless companies made Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians work on Christmas, but didn't make Christians work. What would be equatable is if workers took breaks several times a day to praise Jesus. And if the Muslims can, then why shouldn't the Christians be allowed to praise Jesus at certain times throughout the day? And if the Christians can take breaks to praise Jesus then why shouldn't the the Satanists be allowed to drink goat's blood and jack off to old episodes of Seinfeld, or whatever Satanists do?

 

Well, I guess this isn't really getting through. Islam requires daily prayers of its followers, who happen to believe that their faith is more important than keeping the hog line moving. Christianity makes no such demands...and Christians rarely need to explain or fight for their date-related observances. As I have mentioned three times now, this is because Christians already enjoy legal sanction for these days to be general holidays.

So all I can say is watch Schindler's List...fast-forward to the scene where Schindler allows the Jews to pray on Friday night. Yes, I know the Holocaust was a different situation...but for me, that scene resonates when I hear people's attitudes about this.

I think it is healthy as well as right to allow religious people to pray. Otherwise, they are forced to become martyrs for their faith.

If many Satanists demand the right to follow a consistent set of documented rituals, they ought to have it. Why would it be a problem to sacrifice goats in slaughterhouse? Heck, they could do animal sacrifices without stopping the line, not like those lazy Muslims who want ten minutes to pray.

 

I reluctantly agree with the muslim workers. On the one hand I would agree that no one be given special treatment but on the other hand as a follower of a minority religion most people misunderstand, I know how hard it can be to get the same respect for my holidays that any christian would enjoy. Try telling your boss you need off for summer solstice so you can align with the cycles of nature. They laugh usually.

 

If we don't support free expression of sacred space for those who have different beliefs and tolerance for the special needs that their faith may impose, we will have no one but ourselves to blame when no one respects our practices.

It took another pagan to finally agree that this basic acceptance of human rights deserves respect, regardless of how we may disagree with the religion in question. I wonder what that says about those who can't seem to abstract away from the specific details of this conflict and consider how they might feel if this bigotry and intolerance were applied to them.

Golden Rule, anyone? No?

Fine, then. There are other good rules. How about this one:

Do what thou wilt be the whole of the Law.

Y'all are just lucky that Crowleyanity hasn't swept the mainstream, otherwise there'd be hundreds of workers wanting to perform the 11th degree initiation on company time...and, boy would that piss all the monotheopolists off!

{Note to fundamentalists and moral watchdogs: Google 11th Degree OTO if you are baffled by my earlier comment...I'm sure you'll find it educational.}

 

People's religious beliefs should be kept to themselves and others shouldn't have to be put out on account of them. If that means getting rid of Christmas then fine, it's a half pagan holiday anyway.

Or maybe everyone should get anything they want all the time. Even us atheists can have a day dedicated to us to celebrate the retardedness of all the religions.

P.S. Mr. Crowley was an awesome Ozzy song

 

The trick is you can't get rid of Christmas holiday because a lot of people would just not show up for work or school anyway. Christians enjoy the rights of majority and in the name of fairness and equality everyone else should be given those same rights. Of course I suppose we could just fire all the Christians for not showing up that day but I don't think that would work out too well. I have no problem with atheists uniting and lobbying for a national holiday as long as I can get Halloween recognized as one too.

P.S I have quit jobs for my religious beliefs and would suggest that anyone else do the same if they feel they are not being treated fairly. I consider myself responsible for observing my religion correctly and not my employer, most of the places I have worked have no problem letting me off for anything as long as I give them advanced notice and usually I don't give them a reason or I simply say it is a religious event, the only notable exception was my long boring stint in retail where you had to work certain holidays because that is when they make their money. If you don't want to work Christmas eve don't get a job at a big retailer.

 

We could just share Halloween. That would be awesome.

 

Plenty of candy for everyone.

 

I love it! We'll call it Godless day! You can take over the first Monday in September, Labor Day is stupid anyway, no one works on Labor Day. Or perhaps you'd like to fill the holiday void during August. It is, after all, your day; you should choose one that is meaningful to your congregation.Or, rather, meaningless and random. I do think the most important thing is that there be three-day weekends and enough hotel vacancies. What is the Mecca of Atheism? I suppose it used to be Moscow; what now, Havana?

Everyone can be atheist for a day. We can dress up as famous existentialist philosophers or evolutionary biologists and attend parties where we collectively mock the simpletons who believe in mythological fairy tales. Children can perform "Inherit the Wind" in cute little passion plays.