Tyson Plant Adds Muslim Holiday, Keeps Labor Day
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AP, August 8, 2008
Union workers and officials at a Tyson Foods plant in Tennessee said Friday they have agreed to reinstate Labor Day as a paid holiday, and the plant will also observe the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr this year.
Tyson had previously agreed to drop Labor Day and substitute the Muslim holiday as part of a new 5-year contract to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant in Shelbyville, which is about 50 miles south of Nashville. The decision sparked widespread criticism, from local politicians to talk radio to the Internet.
The Springdale, Ark.-based company said it requested reinstating Labor Day after complaints from plant workers and the public.
Union members voted Thursday to reinstate Labor Day as one of the plant’s paid holidays and keep Eid al-Fitr as an additional paid holiday for this year only. For the remainder of the contract, workers will have Labor Day and a personal holiday, which can be used to observe Eid al-Fitr or another day the employee’s supervisor approves.
Union officials have said at least a couple hundred of the 1,200 plant workers are Muslim.
Eid al-Fitr—which falls on Oct. 1 this year—marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
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“I would have thought that people would have been more sensitive and sympathetic to the concern to the members of our community, who want to celebrate their religious faith,” [Stuart Appelbaum, president of the union] said. “It’s a little disingenuous to say that they (Tyson) were responding to employee concerns. The proposal came from workers themselves.”
Tyson’s previous decision to drop Labor Day as a paid holiday drew intense scrutiny. In a letter to the Shelbyville Times-Gazette newspaper published Thursday, the local mayor and other state elected leaders said substituting Labor Day “for a nontraditional holiday is unacceptable.”
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Last year, dozens of Somali meatpacking workers at a Nebraska plant quit their jobs because they were not given enough time off for Muslim prayers, though they eventually returned to work at the Swift & Co. plant.
(Posted on August 13, 2008)
Comments
“I would have thought that people would have been more sensitive and sympathetic to the concern to the members of our community, who want to celebrate their religious faith,” [Stuart Appelbaum, president of the union] said. “It’s a little disingenuous to say that they (Tyson) were responding to employee concerns. The proposal came from workers themselves.”
Actually, I’m dismayed in his behavior as a so-called union president. Whatever happened to standing up for bona-fide American workers, not recent Somali or Mexican illiterates who are preferred by the corporate bigwigs because they can be paid less? It’s a shame that the left is so blinded by multiculturalism - workers’ rights, women’s rights, gay rights… all of the left’s pet causes will be severely undermined if these non-Western foreigners ever become a majority and gain the upper hand.
Posted by Matt at 6:25 PM on August 13
Tyson had to accommodate the Somali workers simply because so many were there. They were not going to work that particular day.
Why are there 1,200 muslims in rural Tennessee? Because the feds let them in. That is the problem. What will the Somalis do on their day off? Plot against the country that foolishly opened their borders to them.
Posted by Flamethrower at 6:35 PM on August 13
I dont want no crummy somolian kneeling on the dang floor to handle my food….so I did what needed to be done….I STOPPED BUYING THEIR PRODUCTS…LET THEM EAT CROW FOR ALL I CARE….IF SWIFT HIRED THEM….GUESS WHO IS NEXT ON MY BOYCOTT???
Posted by lydia at 6:37 PM on August 13
I suggest that Tyson’s have a pork BBQ feast on the “Eid” holiday. Anyone not attending and eating up should be fired. I guess that would violate the “civil rights” law though?
Or,how about a test on the history and meaning of American holidays for the workers before they are employed? That might weed a few “believers” and illegal immigrants out of the mix.
Posted by at 6:57 PM on August 13
time for prayers from the Somalis? here’s a prayer: God give me the brains of an American and not of a Somali.
Posted by feller at 6:59 PM on August 13
Must be really hard fasting while working at a chicken plant!
Posted by passingthru at 7:20 PM on August 13
Good try Tyson however my family will boycott your products anyways!!
Posted by Alaska Dave at 12:43 AM on August 14
Tyson had previously agreed to drop Labor Day and substitute the Muslim holiday as part of a new 5-year contract to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant in Shelbyville
There IS NO ACCOMODATING MUSLIMS!!! as soon as there are sufficient numbers of them anywhere, they will FORCE your company, city, county, state or country to do as they DEMAND! or said places will suffer the usual penalties, fires, looting, murders, rapes and of course being called RACISSSSSSSSSSSS I do not believe in god, I DO BELIEVE IN WEAPONS though, they are my friends.
Posted by Skip at 1:40 AM on August 14
Why is sensitivity always and only associated with whites?
MoMo
Posted by MoMo at 12:24 PM on August 14
…Actually, I’m dismayed in his behavior as a so-called union president. Whatever happened to standing up for bona-fide American workers…
It was those of his genetic ilk who caused this mess in the first place. He will NEVER stand up for Americans because he will never be one himself.
Posted by at 5:06 PM on August 16
There are other sources for your meats than Tyson’s. Stop buying their products. It is easy to do and it costs you nothing…
Posted by at 5:26 PM on August 19