Tyson ‘Regrets’ Public Reaction
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Brian Mosely, Times-Gazette (Shelbyville, Tenn.), August 6, 2008
Tyson Foods says that Labor Day is still a holiday, but not for the union employees at the Shelbyville poultry processing facility, who will be taking off the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr instead.
Meanwhile, the union that negotiated the controversial contract at the Shelbyville plant has removed the original press release announcing the holiday change from its web site, and the union president has described the backlash to the decision as “bigotry.”
The union had stated in a June 19 press release that 700 Muslims worked at the plant, while Tyson repeated Tuesday that there are only 250 Somalis of the 1,000 union members employed there.
Some readers expressed outrage after the Times-Gazette reported that the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) had successfully negotiated a contract at the Shelbyville Tyson facility that took Labor Day away as a paid holiday and replaced it with the Muslim holy day Eid al-Fitr.
Since the T-G broke the story last Friday, it has received national attention and has become a hot topic of discussion on talk radio, the Internet and national TV, including Fox News Channel.
When asked how Tyson Foods felt about the negative backlash against their company that occurred after the T-G published the story last week, spokesperson Libby Lawson said, “we regret how consumers feel about all of this. We sincerely do.
“Feedback has been thought-provoking. We have received a lot of calls expressing anger and support. We are an American-based company with core values that acknowledges diversity and all faiths,” Lawson said.
“We have chaplains of many different denominations in most of our plants. It has indeed made us reflective about how we negotiate with unions.”
The union refused to answer a series of questions posed by the T-G, but instead released a statement from Stuart Appelbaum, the national president of the RWDSU.
“There’s no question that there is a lot of bigotry against Muslims and that this agreement has clearly touched a raw nerve among those who are prejudiced against them,” Appelbaum said in the prepared statement. “However, the RWDSU has always understood that unions are only strong when they work to protect the dignity of workers of all faiths.
“That includes Muslims. Our union may be the first to negotiate this kind of agreement, but I have no doubt that others will follow our lead,” Appelbaum said.
{snip}
(Posted on August 6, 2008)
Comments
http://www.tyson.com/Corporate/PressRoom/ViewArticle.aspx?id=3012
“The Muslim population at the Shelbyville plant is primarily composed of approximately 250 Somali employees, who are political refugees, most of whom came to the plant as a result of refugee resettlement efforts based in Nashville. They were employed at the plant through the Tennessee Department of Employment Security office.”
More undesirables placed in the perpetual custodial care of taxpayers.
I wonder how many of my tax dollars were spent to pay for the undesirable nuisances that the government saw fit to deposit on Shelbyville, which the town’s citizens now have to babysit for the rest of their lives.
Posted by at 4:49 PM on August 6
Little by little our culture and cohesion are dismantled.
Posted by at 5:16 PM on August 6
So, they get rid of Labor day and celebrate ‘Eid al-Fitr’, and anyone who might object is filled with bigotry and prejudice?
Posted by at 5:16 PM on August 6
BOYCOTT ANYTHING REMOTELY RELATED TO TYSON.
Posted by at 5:25 PM on August 6
There is a particular irony in this article. I’ll give you a hint: The National President of the union quoted here, vis-a-vis a certain modern geopolitical conflict.
Posted by Question Diversity at 5:33 PM on August 6
Speaking of diversity! Tyson & its union sycophants will discover how diverse this American’s buying habits can be. I’ll make sure that what I buy is anything but Tyson.
My wife does most of our food shopping. Some time ago we discussed buying American produce as much as possible. She’s done a great job of paying attention to labels. She buys orange juice that is made from 100% U.S. oranges. She checks labels and stickers on produce and makes sure that it’s American vs Canadian or Mexican or Chilean. Sometimes it’s not possible to buy all American, but if attention is paid, most of the produce can be American.
As regards poultry products, that’s even easier! Poultry is nearly all produced in the U.S. So, Tyson products are highly replaceable. Since they have decided to court the business of one group in preference to Americans and U.S. citizens, let’s see if they can continue to thrive on their employees’ business. I will make sure that no Tyson products enter our home. We can buy Perdue or several other brands. Price isn’t a problem! Most of the time the difference is in pennies. It is easy to hurt these treasonous plutocrats! Hit them where their hearts really are… in their wallets. Boycott Tyson products! Hit them where it hurts! Boycott these greedy traitors!
Posted by at 5:35 PM on August 6
Only a bigot would object to replacing Labor Day with Eid al-Fitr…. Only an anti-American bigot would ever come up with such a preposterous idea .I have an old highschool pal(a Vietnam era veteran) was working for Tyson in Dawson GA . He liked his job and needed that job . They fired him and replaced him with two or three Mexicans . I’ve been doing my best to boycott them every since . And I do love my frozen chicken , I am a Banquet fan now .
Posted by at 5:39 PM on August 6
Why didn’t they eliminate Martin Luther King day instead of Labor Day? Tyson also gave their Mexican employees the day off to protest against America. There are two reasons to boycott that company.
Posted by Alucard at 6:05 PM on August 6
Simple enough, boycott all tyson products. Once they are out of business, others will not follow their lead. Unions and companies need to see the backlash from the public.
Posted by at 6:08 PM on August 6
“However, the RWDSU has always understood that unions are only strong when they work to protect the dignity of workers of all faiths.
“That includes Muslims. Our union may be the first to negotiate this kind of agreement, but I have no doubt that others will follow our lead,” Appelbaum said.
So Christian union members who must now observe a Muslim holiday have not had their dignity insulted? No matter how you look at it, it violates their right not to observe the holidays of the Islamic religion. But I’ve observed that, for all their talk of tolerance, freedom and mutual respect, the rights of white people and Christians don’t seem to matter to the likes of Applebaum.
Posted by Dwayne O. at 6:42 PM on August 6
“The union had stated in a June 19 press release that 700 Muslims worked at the plant, while Tyson repeated Tuesday that there are only 250 Somalis of the 1,000 union members employed there.”
Red flag: “Muslims” does not equate to “Somalis.” When someone switches terms like that, it usually means they are dissembling. Either that or the author is playing loose with the facts. Either scenario is equally likely, given the methodology of both journalism and corporate public relations.
Posted by at 6:49 PM on August 6
Haven’t all you “bigoted” Americans heard, if you don’t rollover for muslims and give them everything they want you are all just full of hate.
Posted by proudinfidel at 6:53 PM on August 6
Corporate Executives are dogs that should be
muzzled and kept on a short leash. Statements like
these should make it clear that Capitalism cannot
provide the moral leadership that a Nation requires.
However Executives try to dress it up, their ideas
always come down to the bottom line: naked self
interest and greed. Kings, Philosophers, Magi, Gen-
erals, and Scientists should be calling the shots.
They would know best when to let the dogs off the
leash and when to tie them and up and put on the
muzzle.
Posted by Freyr at 7:08 PM on August 6
So they regret how consumers feel about this. They sincerely do.
I’m sure that they regret that they have such ignorant, predjudiced consumers purchasing their products too.
They just don’t get it.
Posted by kitty at 7:13 PM on August 6
Tyson is on my boycott list. Permanently. Because of their practice of hiring illegal aliens.
Posted by Svigor at 7:56 PM on August 6
Worse is better. Let’s have more of these incidents.
Things are noving along nicely in the right direction, and I’m looking forward to the repercussions to these incidents when enough tension builds to address them in the right way.
Posted by Ranger at 8:29 PM on August 6
Muslims are not the majority of Tyson product consumers in this country. How regrettable.
Posted by at 8:46 PM on August 6
Somalia is a largely empty stretch of uninhabitable desert, with a population of only nine million people, just a tad more than the city of New York,
Yet with such a tiny country, you read about these Somalian “refugees” EVERYWHERE, from Sweden, to London to Minnesota to Iowa…. And everywhere they settle it is always the same—demands for Sharia law, attacks on Western traditions, gang rapes on women dressed immodestly, refusal to carry taxi passengers with alcohol etc.
And of course the kicker is that Somalians are all absolutely 100 percent deportation proof by the fact that they don’t actually have a government which will accept them for repatriation. By acting so chaotically that Somalia can’t even maintain a rudimentary government, the Somalian people have been granted privileged status amongst all the immigrants of the earth. It is unbelievable.
Posted by AJ at 8:48 PM on August 6
“we regret how consumers feel about all of this. We sincerely do.”
Well, let’s show them how we all feel. No more Tyson chicken in my house.
Posted by time4arevolution at 8:59 PM on August 6
so sorry there tyson…but it’s too late…shove your products where the sun don’t shine….we aren’t buying any….or…sell it to your wonderful new employees….after all they don’t like pork!!
Posted by lydia at 9:04 PM on August 6
There is a real thing that all of us can do to punish Tyson for this treason. Boycott their products! Boycott them! Simple and ultimately effective. This hurts these greedy creeps more than anything else. Stop the flow of cash into their pockets.
My wife and I agreed to try to buy as much U.S. produce as possible. She found a brand of orange juice that uses only U.S. produced oranges - Florida Natural. That’s what we buy. We look at the stickers or tags on produce. if it comes from Canada, Mexico, Chile, etc. we don’t buy it!
Poultry is easier to select against than produce. Tyson proudly puts its name on it’s meat. DON’T BUY IT! Buy Perdue or some other brand other than Tyson. Yes, it will not make a big difference, but who ever dreamed that GM would be so near to bankruptcy. This arrogant bunch of insular Detroiters never got it. They never believed that their baseball, apple-pie, Chevrolet brand and others would be selected against by Americans. But, they produced bad products and gas guzzling tanks that people now select against. Tyson is much more vulnerable than GM. Stop buying their products. Get others to stop too. That’s a start. Let’s put the hurt on all of these ‘global’ companies.
Posted by Frank at 9:20 PM on August 6
What seems to slip past most people is this — how do hundreds of Somalians end up in Shelbyville, Tennessee to work for Tyson? Methinks Tyson somehow arranged their migration.
Posted by Question Diversity at 9:21 PM on August 6
““There’s no question that there is a lot of bigotry against Muslims and that this agreement has clearly touched a raw nerve among those who are prejudiced against them,” Appelbaum said in the prepared statement. “However, the RWDSU has always understood that unions are only strong when they work to protect the dignity of workers of all faiths.”
I see we are playing the “bigotry” card again. No, it is not bigotry, Labor Day is an AMERICAN holiday, if these muslims come to this country, it is up to them to abide by our culture. It’s not up to us to change our culture to suit them.
Posted by kc at 9:57 PM on August 6
It is interesting that they merely “regret” all this obvious, negative customer backlash. They are willing to make deals to placate a couple hundred imported Musilm factory workers, while they potentially alientate thousands of customers?? That is a peculiar business philosophy if I’ve heard one.
Posted by HH at 10:11 PM on August 6
This isn’t the first time the name Tyson has come up on
these pages. They’ve also been involved in bringing massive
numbers of Mexicans to work in the Midwest. But eneough. Let’s
give them the “Absolut Vodka” treatment. No sacrafice on my
part: alot of their stuff looks and tastes like dog food to me.
Posted by Leif the Lucky at 10:48 PM on August 6
PC/multicult has such ‘power’ that companies think they can thumb their noses at their own customers - look at the all black Vogue issue, Tyson,…I recall when I was on the phone with dell customer service complaining when they switched their server support to India - and the customer service rep snapped “we are committed to diversity’ when I said the I couldn’t understand their English and they were of little help.
There is no doubt in my mind that in ‘the background’ the government is lending support to these companies, otherwise they wouldn’t be so brazen with their customers.
As for Tyson - I gave up factory food a long time ago but among the meatpackers they are the worst of the worst…..
Posted by at 11:14 PM on August 6
Why does everyone have to take the muslim day off? Why can’t just the muslims take it? Let the Christians have their Labor Day, and let the muslims have their Eid. That way the plant won’t have to be closed for either holiday. I can’t believe that American, union employees would vote for this inferior holiday (Eid). It isn’t even a three-day weekend for cryin’ out loud!
Posted by GoAway at 11:26 PM on August 6
“There’s no question that there is a lot of bigotry against Muslims and that this agreement has clearly touched a raw nerve among those who are prejudiced against them,” Appelbaum said in the prepared statement. “However, the RWDSU has always understood that unions are only strong when they work to protect the dignity of workers of all faiths.”
That’s why you can’t even talk to these people, they won’t EVER get the point, not if they live to be a bazillion.
I for one, don’t give a rat’s posterior about Muslims, except the ones that cause problems. THe point is why should OUR culture, OUR holidays, OUR heritage be summarily substituted for that of newcomers, who should be embracing OUR culture, OUR holidays, OUR heritage?
Posted by at 11:34 PM on August 6
I sincerely hope that Tyson is boycotted to the extent that it hurts their business enough to really matter.
Hitting these arrogant pukes in the $$$ is the only thing they understand.
I understand that the RWDSU is a HUGE supporter of Obomba.
Seems to be a lot of muslim support for someone who is no longer a muslim. I thought their prophet told them “an apostate is worthy of death”?
Posted by Superman at 11:56 PM on August 6
Haven’t all you “bigoted” Americans heard, if you don’t rollover for muslims and give them everything they want you are all just full of hate.
Posted by proudinfidel at 6:53 PM on August 6
No! actually what the Muslims do is get “OUTRAGED” then they riot, burn, loot, rob, rape and pillage!! Sound familiar?? get Muslims out of America before it’s to late I will buy no Tyson products and neither will my wife, and she is from Arkansas.
Posted by Skip at 12:06 AM on August 7
That union representative sickens me. Clearly that reptile is only interested in collecting union dues and is not interested in protecting American jobs for Americans. “Bigotry.” What a stinking rat.
Posted by Phil McKann at 12:45 AM on August 7
spokesperson Libby Lawson said, “we regret how consumers feel about all of this. We sincerely do.
The nerve!
They “regret” how WE feel. Well, shame on us! They don’t regret anything THEY have done. Obviously, we’re the wrong-headed ones here. People who want to hang onto their country and culture are just nasty, ignorant bigots.
The PC poison has even seeped into Shelbyville, Tennessee! Amazing.
Oh, btw, let me ask: Aren’t officially designated legal holidays such as Labor Day mandatory? Do any employers (or unions) have the option of disregarding them or trading them? (I really don’t know about this.)
Posted by voter at 2:08 AM on August 7
The sad part here-and the proof that our world is dead- is that you can’t convince a young multiculturalist that there’s anything wrong here. They’d just ask, “well, if the workers are all Muslim, shouldn’t they have a paid holiday that THEY use?”
Seriously, the real problem is the young white person beside you. Them, and the elders who programmed them to think that up is down, night is day, and black is white.
You can’t trump deep conditioning.
Posted by at 2:23 AM on August 7
There’s an old saying ,”It takes all kinds”. The real truth is it really doesn’t “take” all kinds , we just have them. Just who the real bigots are here isn’t rocket science.
Posted by THE OLD SAGE at 2:24 AM on August 7
I won’t buy Tyson products just because they have so many Somali employees. No telling what some fanatic will do to the chicken to get back at all those evil Christians and Jews.
Posted by at 6:31 AM on August 7
Unions are definitely accountable for a lot of the woes in this country. They are also illegal immigration advocates. They are as willing to take an illegals dues as an Americans. Keep in mind, Tyson holds a lot of responsibility, but they only have so much power when it comes to union decisions.
Posted by at 8:50 AM on August 7
It’s time for Tyson’s union employees to elect a new union president!
How does the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), a “Labor Organization”, negotiate away Labor Day! A holiday designed to honor workers!
They could have taken away a minor holiday and turned it into a floating holiday to be used at each employees time of choosing. I don’t know about any of you, but I certainly enjoy my 3 day Labor Day weekend.
In closing, it takes two to tango, so I will be boycotting Tyson and due to that, I’m afraid the RWDSU will suffer as well. Maybe this will wake up other union leaders.
Posted by MiddleClassWhite at 9:38 AM on August 7
I recently saw some pro illegal alien activists yelling in the faces of minutemen in San Francisco. Some were carrying signs calling them racists. I cant understand what racists have to do with Mexicans breaking our laws. Even if they were racists, they still have a right to have their borders guarded. It means absolutely nothing to call them racists.
Posted by sandstorm at 11:36 AM on August 7
“The union refused to answer a series of questions posed by the T-G, but instead released a statement from Stuart Appelbaum, the national president of the RWDSU.”
“…the RWDSU has always understood that unions are only strong when they work to protect the dignity of workers of all faiths. That includes Muslims. Our union may be the first to negotiate this kind of agreement, but I have no doubt that others will follow our lead,” Appelbaum said.”
He’s not protecting the ‘dignity of workers,’ he’s trying to arbitrarily replace a traditional American holiday with some obscure Muslim religious observance.
Where, oh where do these liberal imbiciles come from?
Posted by Gary at 12:33 PM on August 7
I stopped buying Tyson products back when they supported Bill Clinton in his first run on the White House…
Posted by at 1:00 PM on August 7
Stuart Appelbaum negotiates on behalf of Muslim employees. Am I the only one who sees the irony here? I guess it goes to show, when there’s personal gain to be made people can be very, what’s the word, accommodating.
Posted by idareya at 1:10 PM on August 7
Arkansas based company Tyson has been one of the companies repeatedly cited for using illegal labor. Our corrupt government has not seen fit to enforce our laws when they apply to the meat packing industry. Both political parties accept millions of contributions from Tyson, Hormel and other meat packers. Not doing anything to stop the hiring of illegal immigrants and ameliorate the increasingly unsafe working conditions at many meat packing plants has been the payoff for these dubious contributions.
Posted by Sardonicus at 1:19 PM on August 7
I usually buy my cold stuff last, but some people don’t plan as carefully.
I can imagine someone shopping at Wal-Mart, loading up two large buggies with Tyson Foods frozen products, and then pushing the buggies outside to the outdoor lawn and garden section to shop for an hour or so in the summer heat. Sometimes, one becomes preoccupied with the garden tools while their buggies of frozen foods thaw in the sun. Sometimes, folks become dissuaded by the high prices of shovels and rakes in the lawn and garden sections and just walk out of the store, disgusted and empty-handed, leaving things right where there are.
It’s probably better just to buy their competitor’s products.
Posted by at 1:28 PM on August 7
Who is surprised? This is the logical outcome of mass immigration (legal and otherwise) of non white people to our country. It was so easy to see where this would all end. In fact, I see this as the perfect example of the pitfalls of mass immigration of non whites for all those people who hold blind obedience to mass immigration, and all the malarky about “nation of immigrants”, and especially those that say they oppose illegal immigration but welcome legal immigrants with open arms”. I tell them, whether they come legally or illegally is of little consequence. When we bring in millions of 3rd world people from different cultures, they will eventually begin demanding we honor their traditions and revere their country’s holidays. As we bring in more muslims, there will be more calls for honoring muslim holidays. As the mexicans numbers increase even more in the Southwest, expect demands for cinco de mayo to become a recognized holiday. The libs have done a masterful job of clouding the immigration issue by polarizing sides on illegal immigration, rather than discussing all immigration. And anyone opposing legal mass immigration will be labeled a “xenophobe”. Until enough Americans realize that all immigration must be drastically reduced, our traditional culture, values, and language will continue to be pushed aside and marginalized one factory, neighborhood, city, and state at a time. It is the inevitable conclusion of putting different cultures in a confined space. The demands of our “new citizens”, much like the black population here already, will NEVER cease.
Posted by at 4:36 PM on August 7
To Frank who posted at 9:20 PM on August 6:
I’ve been advocating creating an organized (or at least informed) resistance against companies that are most at odds with White culture for years. We should be able to identify and actively boycott the worst offenders, but it will take a degree of organization and more than a handful of Amren posters to accomplish this. We need an organized, central list. But how?
Posted by at 10:00 PM on August 7
Unless Tyson’s executives have figured out a way to force the US public to buy their products, this may not be such a good idea.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 4:32 AM on August 8
Send Applebaum to Somalia and see how he is received.Let’s see how open they are to freedom of religion.Why not replace Yom Kippur with a Muslim holiday.I bet he’ll change his tune then.Of course then again, like so many others,he is only a believer when it works to his benefit.
Posted by at 11:27 AM on August 8
While we’re all on the “boycott Tyson” train (which, BTW, I firmly support), let me point out another notion here:
If Tyson has a packing or processing plant with a large enough muslim presence to pull this off, then that means those same muslims are actually handling all that chicken that winds up on your grocer’s shelf, and they obviously are the ones with the power there. Now I don’t know who has access to what or in what quantities, but it seems that, worldwide, a current favorite pass-time of ticked off muslim fundamentalists is to indiscriminately kill as many people as possible. I can’t think of a better way to do so than through a mass food supply.
I’m just saying…
Posted by BW Sam at 12:50 PM on August 8
The union has compromised under pressure from consumers and political officials. They will reinstate Labor Day, have Eid off this year, but employees be able to choose Eid or a personal holiday starting next year.
http://www.t-g.com/story/1451367.html
Posted by at 4:53 PM on August 8
[He] negotiates on behalf of Muslim employees. Am I the only one who sees the irony here?
Posted by idareya
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You are not alone. But actually, according to my own observation, this is not at all an uncommon thing. In fact, it seems standard. Hardly any surprise.
Posted by at 10:15 AM on August 10
So…does that mean that CHRISTIAN holidays are observed too?…besides the OBVIOUS of Easter and Christmas?…GOOD FRIDAY?…first day of LENT?…ASH WEDNESDAY?…since I am Catholic those are but a FEW of the religious holidays I’m familiar with…IF there are ONLY 250 Muslims employed there then they are NOT a MAJORITY!…however, considering that this company KNOWINGLY hired, employed AND sheltered ILLEGALS…I don’t BELIEVE anything this company says!
“That includes Muslims. Our union may be the first to negotiate this kind of agreement, but I have no doubt that others will follow our lead,” Appelbaum said…
THIS statement is the most telling and CHILLING of all!…
BIGOTRY?…YES!…I am a BIGOT!…I admit it and do NOT care what ANYONE says OR cares about it!
BIGOTRY?…SO WHAT!!!
Posted by Suzan Donoghue at 1:15 PM on August 13