Dispute between Swift and Muslim workers expands

By Chris Casey

A roiling labor dispute over the observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and assembly-line operations shifted from a Greeley meatpacking plant to one in Grand Island, Neb., as more workers protested break times.

Five hundred Muslim workers walked off the job Monday at the JBS Swift & Co. plant in Nebraska after they say they were denied time to pray.

The walkout follows a similar action at the JBS Swift plant in Greeley on Sept. 5, when roughly 300 workers walked off the job. That led to the firings of about 120 workers.

Graen Isse, one of the workers fired in Greeley for what the company called an unauthorized walkout during their shift, said he was saddened by the Grand Island news.

"I'm feeling bad. I don't want anybody to be facing unemployment," Isse said Tuesday. "I want them to have their jobs and support their families."

Tamara Smid, a JBS Swift spokeswoman, issued a short statement regarding the Grand Island situation via e-mail Tuesday afternoon. She said company officials began meeting with union leaders last Friday along with Muslim leaders to address the timing of the plant's second- shift lunch break.

"We are continuing to meet with the parties to reach a resolution that is acceptable to all parties involved," Smid said in the statement. "Our hope is that we can strike a balance between a reasonable accommodation of their requests and our operational requirements."

Smid said the company on Tuesday received "some grievance notices" from leaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 in regard to the terminated workers at the Greeley plant. Read more ...

Source: Greeley Tribune
More on this story ...

Islamist protest for right to prayer

Asha Abdi tells the story of how a supervisor kicked her
feet when she knelt to pray at JBS Swift & Co. Grand
Island plant. Abdi, who is Muslim, was told she couldn't
pray and was told to go home. A group of 500 Muslim
workers, including members of both the A shift and B
shift walked off the job Monday Sept. 15, 2008 and staged
a protest after being denied time to pray during Ramadan.

By Tracy Overstreet

GRAND ISLAND - A group of 500 Muslim workers from Grand Island's JBS Swift & Co. plant staged a protest Monday afternoon.

Members of the B shift (3 to 11:30 p.m.) and some members of the morning A shift walked off the job after being denied time to pray during what they said is the holiest of times for them -- Ramadan.

A group of protesting women said they were kicked by a supervisor when they attempted to pray at work.

Asha Abdi said she knelt to pray when the supervisor said, "You can't pray here," kicked her feet and told her to go home.

Another woman, Hawo Mohammed, said she told her production supervisor she needed to go to the bathroom. She attempted to pray quickly in the bathroom until the male supervisor followed her in and told her she was taking too long.

"The main point is freedom for religion," said Ridwan Abbi, a second-shift production worker who gladly supported his peers.

The workers said they pray about four to five times a day -- two times of which fall during the A shift schedule and two of which fall during the B shift. Read more ...

Source: The Grand Island Independent

Meat-plant owner "uncooperative" in Muslim prayer fight

By David Migoya

A [Muslim Brotherhood front that claims to be a] civil-rights group holds little hope that a week-old dispute between Muslim workers and their bosses at a Greeley slaughterhouse will end quickly, based on the company's recent response in a similar standoff in Nebraska.

A mediation session between Brazilian-owned JBS Swift & Co. and the Council on American-Islamic Relations to discuss issues involving Muslim employees at its Grand Island, Neb., plant ended Wednesday without progress, CAIR officials said.

"They were completely uncooperative," said Christina Abraham, director of civil rights at CAIR's office in Chicago, which is handling both Swift disputes.

"Though we're hopeful, the issue in Greeley may follow the same route and it could take years," she said.

There was no date to resume the mediation.

It was the first hearing on 20 complaints that CAIR filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over problems Muslim workers say they had with Swift over prayer breaks at the plant last year.

Each complaint is offered mediation before the EEOC investigates, and Wednesday's was the only session Swift agreed to attend so far, Abraham said.

Source: The Denver Post
H/T: Shariah Finance WatchJBS Swift Plant
Latest recipient of The MASH Award

Fired Somali workers observe Ramadan as leaders prepare for future action

Jakob Rodgers

Fired workers from JBS Swift & Co. stayed at home and observed the Ramadan fast with family and friends on Friday as Somali community leaders organized their constituents for possible legal action.

Several organizations, including Somali Aid, the Colorado Muslim Council, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition as well as faith and labor leaders, joined on Friday in condemning the firing of more than 100 Somali workers on Tuesday for not showing up to work at the JBS Swift plant, according to a release.

Local leaders prepared to hold a meeting today, however, to advise the workers on how to proceed. No Somali workers visited the local unemployment office on Friday as originally planned, according to Graen Isse, spokesperson for the local Somali community; such actions could happen on Monday.

Meanwhile, an investigation continues concerning threatening fliers that were distributed in the plant's cafeteria on Wednesday night that appeared to show people in a protest with signs reading "Behead those who insult Islam."
Read more ...

Source: Greeley Tribune
More on this story ...

At least 100 Swift workers let go

About 100 Muslim workers at the north Greeley JBS Swift & Co. plant were let go Wednesday afternoon.

About 15 Greeley police officers were called to the scene by a Swift security guard as part of the termination. The security guard told police one terminated Swift worker had tried to hit him.

No arrests were made. The worker was escorted off the premises and police remained on the scene for peace keeping purposes.

The workers appeared to be all African. The termination appears to be related to the walkout of Muslim employees on Friday. The workers left their jobs Friday night after they were told they would not be given a break to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Swift issued a statement via e-mail Friday evening about the terminations. The statement said the workers were let go as a result of the Ramadan-related work stoppage last week. Read more ...

Source: Greeley Tribune
More:
Talks break down between Muslims and Swift
JBS Swift Muslim workers protest Ramadan reversal

JBS Swift Plant
Latest recipient of The MASH Award

JBS Swift Muslim workers protest Ramadan reversal

Muslim employees of Greeley's JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant
congregate Monday at Lincoln Park, 10th Avenue and 9th Street
in Greeley, to hear the compromise reached by the Somali
Muslim community leaders and the executives at Swift. The
workers are asking the company to allow them to have their
break at 7:30 p.m. to break their fast of Ramadan.

By Chris Casey

More than 150 Muslim workers didn't report to their meatpacking plant jobs Monday in the wake of what they called JBS Swift & Co.'s sudden reversal of accommodation for their religious fasting during Ramadan.

The workers initially planned a two-mile march from downtown Greeley's Lincoln Park to the plant, but a gathering that formed mid-morning never left the park. Throughout the day, several Greeley police officers watched from the park's edge.

Company officials met with several workers Monday afternoon at the plant, and Somali representatives later spoke with workers in downtown Greeley.

Graen Isse, a Swift worker and group spokesman, said the workers would not discuss details of their grievances, which were supplied to Swift in writing, until the company responded. He said he expected to hear from Swift Tuesday morning.

"I believe (the workers) will be back to their jobs," Isse said.

Asked what would happen if the workers didn't get what they wanted, Isse said, "That's another question. We'll pass on that." Read more ...

Source: Greeley Tribune

Non-Muslim workers protest accommodation of Muslims at Swift plant

In this we see the inevitable and logical outcome of the allegedly "reasonable" accommodation of Muslim demands in American workplaces: "Somalis are running our plant. They are telling us what to do." The company has "no respect for the Spanish or white people. Many times we are forced to pull extra count... I don't feel that is right."

Although this article frames the controversy in racial terms, it isn't really a racial issue at all. It is a question of to what extent American institutions and organizations are going to change their practices and inconvenience non-Muslims in order to assuage Muslim demands. These Muslim initiatives, I have argued, are part of a larger stealth jihad aimed at, in the words of the Muslim Brotherhood, "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” Read more ...

Source: Jihad Watch