Wednesday, August 06, 2008

muslim holiday for tyson chicken

i'm going to directly reprint an article from the ny times. i'll post my comments, thoughts, etc in the comment section.

"August 6, 2008
Muslim Holiday at Tyson Plant Creates Furor
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

The union that represents workers at a Tyson Foods poultry plant in Tennessee has negotiated a contract that substitutes a Muslim holiday for Labor Day as one of the eight paid holidays at the plant.

The provision, which was proposed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, has delighted the plant’s Somali workers, who account for hundreds of its 1,200 employees. But it has infuriated many outsiders, leading some to denounce Tyson and the union alike.

“You are a union that is proud of achieving a Muslim holiday and prayer room?” one person wrote the union. “A union in the U.S.A., a country based on Christianity. You call yourselves Americans? Have you forgotten 9/11?”

Another wrote: “You had no right to drop Labor Day. Muslim employees must integrate Labor Day into THEIR lives if they are going to live in America.”

Stung by the criticism, Stuart Appelbaum, the union’s president, said the decision was fully consistent with the spirit of Labor Day.

“We in the labor movement have always understood that unions are only strong when we work to protect the dignity of all faiths, and that includes Muslims,” said Mr. Appelbaum, who also serves as president of the Jewish Labor Committee.

“What we negotiated was the will of the workers,” said Mr. Appelbaum, who added that his was the first union to negotiate a paid day off for a Muslim holiday and that he was sure Tyson would not be the last employer to agree.

The plant affected is in the town of Shelbyville, some 40 miles south of Nashville. Under a five-year contract there, Id al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, is now one of the plant’s eight paid holidays.

Union officials said the two Somali immigrants on the union’s eight-member bargaining committee had been eager to make Id al-Fitr (pronounced eed-al-FIT-tr) a paid holiday. The union agreed to do so at the expense of Labor Day in part because it did not want to trade Christmas, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day or other existing paid holidays, and in part because Tyson has usually required the plant’s employees to work on Labor Day anyway. (Employees received a holiday premium for working that day.)

“We had worked 23 Labor Days in a row; it wasn’t like it was a day to spend with our family,” said Randy Hadley, a union representative who helped negotiate the contract.

Mr. Hadley said both management and union were surprised when nearly all the Somali workers — Tyson puts their number at 250, the union at nearly 400 — did not work on Id al-Fitr last year. They were not paid, but the plant almost had to close that day, said Mr. Hadley, adding that management was “elated” by the proposal to make Id al-Fitr a holiday.

The contract was negotiated last year and approved by workers in November. But the holiday provision largely escaped public notice until a local newspaper published an article about it last week. Many anti-immigrant bloggers and conservative commentators have since berated Tyson, urging a boycott.

Thrown on the defensive, the company issued a statement Monday saying: “Contrary to recent reports, Labor Day is still a holiday at Tyson Foods. The issue concerns only the plant at Shelbyville.”

“This is not a religious accommodation,” the statement added. “Rather, it is a union-initiated contract demand.”

Libby Lawson, a Tyson spokeswoman, noted that the plant had three Christian chaplains, and prayer rooms for Muslims and Christians alike."

3 comments:

edluv said...

when i read articles like this one i realize how liberal i am. and frankly, how religiously tolerant i was raised within my Xian tradition.

at first blush, i was surprised that a union would give up labor. it's their holiday, after all. but as i read on and saw that employees @ this particular plant had actually worked for the previous 23 labors (although w/holiday pay) i realized that they weren't giving up all that much. it's not like they weren't already working on the freakin labor holiday.

i was surprised that this happened in tennessee, just because i didn't know there was such a large muslim population. but hey, why not? america is allegedly about diversity.

of course, when i saw the initial headline it was no shock to read this quote, "“You are a union that is proud of achieving a Muslim holiday and prayer room? A union in the U.S.A., a country based on Christianity. You call yourselves Americans? Have you forgotten 9/11?”

damn fools. have you forgotten ruby ridge? waco? you're celebrating the gov't that tore up those places on shaky premises.

what about oklahoma city? what the hell was tim mcveigh about? do we take off any holidays he liked?

i love this part, "We in the labor movement have always understood that unions are only strong when we work to protect the dignity of all faiths, and that includes Muslims,” said Mr. Appelbaum, who also serves as president of the Jewish Labor Committee."

thanks, stuart appelbaum, you are a true american, a true union president, and a noble leader.

Lulu said...

I had a bit of a change of heart after reading that article myself but I also have a few questions (I read through it fast though so I might have just skimmed over some stuff).
First, does this mean labor day is no longer holiday pay? If they dont get any overtime or holiday pay then that would be upsetting to people. Not only does almost everyone else have that day off while you are stuck working but you dont get compensated for that anymore either? I could see why that would be irritating.
Also, does everyone get the Muslim holiday off or just the Muslims? I would assume everyone would but I didnt read that in there either.

edluv said...

i'm a little uncertain on if they still get holiday pay, but i don't think they do.

basically, they traded a paid day working @ time & half for a paid day off. everyone gets it.

i'm not sure how bent people @ the plant are. the union had to vote for it, or at least approve the plan. and, the contract was actually passed months ago, but it recently gained attention because a local paper did a story on it. although that story could have been sparked by some anonymous complaint.