Thread: Plant Drops Labor Day For Muslim Holiday

Plant Drops Labor Day For Muslim Holiday
More Than Half Of Tyson Plant's Workforce Muslim

POSTED: 12:18 pm CDT August 1, 2008
UPDATED: 3:06 am CDT August 2, 2008

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- Some workers at a local plant will no longer to be able to take their Labor Day holiday because of religious reasons.

Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.

Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays -- the same number as the old contract.

Eid al-Fitr -- which falls on Oct. 1 this year -- marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Union leaders said implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.

Nineteen-year plant veteran William Pentecost doesn’t agree with the decision.

"I don’t think it's right. I really don't think it's right," he said.

Tyson company spokeswoman Libby Lawson said by phone that, "This isn't a religious accommodation, this is a contractual agreement. The majority asked for it."

The change didn’t bother some workers.

"I think it's fine. I don’t have any problem with it. There's a whole bunch of them here, so they've got to do something for them," said worker John Smith.

"It shouldn't happen. I mean, I think, we're in America, you're in America, I think that they should go with our holidays," Pentecost said.

Channel 4's Cynthia Williams could not reach any of the plant’s Muslim workers, because Channel 4 News' crew was not permitted on the property.

Former employee and Shelbyville resident Anthony Proctor said he thinks what's happening is wrong.

He said he helped build a special Muslim prayer room that's located inside the plant and that no other Tyson facility has been that accommodating for any other religion.

"If we want to go pray, we don’t have one for Christians," he said.

Tyson is headquartered in Arkansas.

Lawson said they consider religious accommodations on a case-by-case basis. She said that so far, no one has asked for any other type of religious prayer room.

No one at the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s regional office answered phone calls placed by Williams on Friday.

A representative in New York said that no one there knew specifics about the new contract with the workers, but a person in research told Williams that holidays aren't usually replaced and are more likely to be added on.

The decision will only apply to workers at the plant who are union members. All other employees at the plant will still have their normal Labor Day holiday.
http://www.wsmv.com/news/17063986/detail.html#-

This can't be for real.....can it! Are we still in America or did I wake up in another country?

Political correctness has gone amok!!!

"Union leaders said implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people."


A question comes to mind; "Do the muslims/Somalis make an effort to speak ENGLISH?"

This isn't a religious accommodation,

BS!!! Appeasement and an encouragement of non-assimilation is what it is! Can you PC'ers, libidiots and multi-culturalists say NO to anyone or anything???

Oh my God, now I've heard everything. If Tyson Foods wants to accomodate the Muslim holday go ahead, but do NOT DARE take away a TRADITIONAL AMERICAN HOLIDAY from the Americans!!!

Instead of eight paid holidays.....Tyson Foods you MUST have NINE paid holidays!!

What jerks

AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, BUILD A CHAPEL FOR THE CHRISTIANS TO PRAY IN!!

You morons

AND, IRONICALLY, THE HOLIDAY THEY DECIDED TO DROP WAS LABOR DAY....WHAT NEXT CHRISTMAS?

I checked this on Snopes and they are showing it as "News Stories" so I guess they take this as true.

Originally Posted by Gogo

I checked this on Snopes and they are showing it as "News Stories" so I guess they take this as true.

AND....Sad!!