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| Workers hope for prayer compromise at Grand Island plant |
| 2008-09-22 |
| GRAND ISLAND, Neb. -- Local Muslim leaders will seek a compromise with officials at a Grand Island meatpacking plant in hopes of resolving a prayer dispute. More than two dozen representatives from the local Somali community and a Somali Muslim group from Omaha met Sunday to discuss the protests and firings that stemmed from an ongoing confrontation at the JBS Swift & Co. plant. Mohamed Rage, that's an...interesting...name who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, oh look, a community organizer! said there were more firings Saturday, and he believes 180 to 200 Somali Muslims have been terminated altogether. "The company is asking people to be loyal to God or their employer," he said. "That is not a position (the workers) should be put in." The Grand Island plant employs about 2,500 people, not including managers. About a fifth of them are Muslim. The Muslim workers -- most of Somali background -- have been asking for accommodations with break times to allow prayer at sunset. The issue led to walkouts at the plant last week -- not only from Muslims, but also from non-Muslims who protested such accommodations as preferential treatment. JBS Swift has confirmed 86 firings, saying the employees were fired for repeatedly leaving work without authorization. The company has also said it issued warnings before terminating workers. Messages left over the weekend for a company spokeswoman weren't returned. Rage said he anticipated all the Muslim workers would be fired before the end of this week, but he was encouraging those still employed to keep working. He and other Muslim leaders called Sunday's meeting as some workers contemplated additional protests. The Muslim group that gathered Sunday decided that their first course of action is to negotiate with company officials to ensure workers' constitutional rights aren't violated. The group says it has tried to strike a compromise with plant management on three occasions -- all before the first walkout early last week. If further negotiations don't work, the workers will seek help from the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission and its federal counterpart. Phone messages left in recent days with the state commission have not been returned. Several of the counterprotesters on Thursday held brochures from the commission -- printed in English and Spanish -- that explained how it handles complaints. They said they were given the brochures in case they were fired. Christine Nazer of the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission said last week that the agency is prohibited by law from discussing complaint filings or ongoing investigations. Earlier Sunday, about 100 Somalis gathered outside a local apartment complex to discuss the prayer issue with the Muslim representatives. One man carried small U.S. and Somali flags. Another carried a sign bearing the words "We respect all faiths." Several Somalis, including a woman on crutches who had fallen at work and broken her leg, detailed stories of mistreatment at the hands of management. Asha Hussen said it took a significant effort to convince plant nurses she'd been injured that badly. When she went to the plant for help with a doctor visit, she was fired, Hussen said. Asha Abdi detailed how she'd been locked in a room after she was caught praying. She also said management took away the pieces of cardboard she and others were using as prayer mats. On Monday, hundreds of Muslim employees walked off the job, saying they weren't being allowed to take a break to pray during Ramadan. Break times were then altered on the second shift so that Muslim employees 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. Later Thursday, plant managers did an about-face, saying the new break times weren't working. Khadar Ducaale of the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization said Sunday that tension has been building between the Muslim employees and their co-workers. "This is a place where people are holding knives, and they can kill each other. They can finish each other, and at the end of the day it would be up to the plant to pay for whatever happened," he said. Standard threat of violence if we don't get what we want and Its All Your Fault! JBS Swift & Co. said in a statement Friday that the company is working to resolve the issue. "JBS values its diverse workforce and has a long track record of making significant accommodations to employees," the statement said. "We work closely with all employees and union representation to accommodate religious practices in a reasonable, safe and fair manner." |
| Posted by:Cromert |
| #8 "The Muslim group that gathered Sunday decided that their first course of action is to negotiate with company officials to ensure workers' constitutional rights aren't violated." Can somebody please explain to me what constitutional rights they're talking about? I don't know of these constitutional rights to shut down meat processing lines for prayers or to walk out and still keep your job. Help me with this. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2008-09-22 19:25 |
| #7 The walk-outs from other employees were Hispanic workers who intensely dislike the Somalis for getting preferential treatment. It could turn violent very easily. We can thank the UN/State for resettling legal Muslim refugees here, on the taxpayers running tab. |
| Posted by: Danielle 2008-09-22 17:35 |
| #6 "Pray later, when you get off shift. Allah is very understanding about these things." |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-09-22 16:21 |
| #5 Got their asses kicked and now want a hudna. Too bad congress allows refugees to collect welfare. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-09-22 12:22 |
| #4 I'd shitcan anyone making veiled threats about killing people with knives. |
| Posted by: Cholush Jones8188 2008-09-22 11:37 |
| #3 That's, ok. They can all go to work for thatkosher meat processor in Iowa, the one whose illegal workforce was all deported by ICE a few weeks ago. They've been hiring legal Somalis as replacements, and this lot won't need very much training. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-09-22 11:29 |
| #2 They were fired and/or quit. Pack their asses up and deport them back whence they came. They have nothing to do in Nebraska or any other damn place in the US now. We already have an overflow of Muzz cabdrivers in Minneapolis and don't need any in Dallas. These people are trouble. Increasing their polulation here only increases the likelyhood of a "Cologne event" here in the US. We don't want nor need that. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 2008-09-22 10:45 |
| #1 A compromise? Tell them they can pray all they want. In Somalia... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-09-22 09:47 |