Production Lines Have To Stop So Muslims Can Pray

red states rule

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May 30, 2006
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How much more of this bullshit do we have to take from Muslims demanding special treatment?


Jul 22, 5:22 PM EDT


Muslim Workers in Neb. Allege Harassment

By OSKAR GARCIA
Associated Press Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Supervisors at a meatpacking plant have fired or harassed dozens of Somali Muslim employees for trying to pray at sunset, violating civil rights laws, the workers and their advocates say.

The five- to 10-minute prayer, known as the maghrib, must be done within a 45-minute window around sunset, according to Muslim rules. The workers at the Swift & Co. plant in Grand Island say they quit, were fired or were verbally and physically harassed over the issue.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has drafted a complaint to be filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The petition compiles testimony from at least 44 workers who had planned to sign the complaint during a meeting Sunday. The signing was changed to a later date because of a logistical problem.

Jama Mohamed, 28, said he was fired in June for leaving a production line to pray. Supervisors would not allow him a break, he said.

"Some of them took the (prayer) mat from me; they started shouting, they started telling me to stop it, and one of them grabbed me by the collar of my shirt," Mohamed said through an interpreter.

"I was crying at the time this was happening to me, and when I finished I told them while they were doing that I was in the middle of a prayer."

Mohamed said he was then called to an office, where a supervisor fired him.

Mohamed Rage, chairman of the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said Swift had fired at least two dozen workers for praying since May.

Donald Selzer, an attorney for Greeley, Colo.-based Swift, said only three Somali workers were fired for reasons relating to the issue, and that it was for walking off the line without permission, not for praying.

Unscheduled breaks can force unplanned shutdowns of lines, Selzer said.

"That is a significant number of employees, and there is not much of a way to accommodate that consistent with keeping the production online," he said.

The complaint reprises issues that boiled over in May, when 120 Somali workers abruptly quit for similar reasons. About 70 returned a week later, but union officials worried the issue would resurface through the late spring as sunset came later in the evening shift.

"For three days it was all good and we were praying; there was no hassle, no interference, nothing at all," said Ali Schire, 30, who said he returned to the plant but was later fired for trying to pray.

"All of a sudden after three days it just all got loose, and they were suspending people, they were firing people," Schire said through an interpreter. "Some of the people even had to give up praying at all for fear of being fired."

Said Selzer: "These people are absolutely entitled to pray, and they should not be interfered with for doing so. But on the other hand, the only situations that I've been made aware of are people that walk off the job without permission, and that's a different kind of an issue."

Dan Hoppes, president of Local 22 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said he had not heard of many Somali workers being fired or harassed since May. Prayer breaks are not in the contract, he said, but he hopes to revisit the issue in negotiations in 2010.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MUSLIM_PRAYER_COMPLAINT?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
 
Sorry, this should NOT be happening. If I belonged to some fringe Christian groups that ordered a rosary said twice a day, either I'd quit or have to come to accomodation with employer. In this case, since the norm, (law) with an 8 hour work day is 2@15 minute breaks with lunch, there should be an offer to give the minutes for prayer. Fair all around.
 
Sorry, this should NOT be happening. If I belonged to some fringe Christian groups that ordered a rosary said twice a day, either I'd quit or have to come to accomodation with employer. In this case, since the norm, (law) with an 8 hour work day is 2@15 minute breaks with lunch, there should be an offer to give the minutes for prayer. Fair all around.

It is a snowball rolling down the side of a mountain - we need to stop it before we can't
 
It is a snowball rolling down the side of a mountain - we need to stop it before we can't

What are you talking about? If I wish to consolidate my 2@15 minute breaks for prayer, why not? Why would an employer object?
 
What are you talking about? If I wish to consolidate my 2@15 minute breaks for prayer, why not? Why would an employer object?

Because they need a certain number of people on the floor working at all times to keep the parts flowing

Why should they get special treatment

You have Muslim cabbies refusing to pick up blind people with seeing eye dogs or people with alcohol

Muslims cashiers refusing to touch pork products

When you take a job - you don't tell the boss how and when you will work
 
Because they need a certain number of people on the floor working at all times to keep the parts flowing

Why should they get special treatment

You have Muslim cabbies refusing to pick up blind people with seeing eye dogs or people with alcohol

Muslims cashiers refusing to touch pork products

When you take a job - you don't tell the boss how and when you will work

Just like 'smoking' this could be worked out. Seriously. While I give zip to those that wish to harm us, I would wish nothing bad for those that don't. By the very nature of declaring the beliefs, they've opened themselves to being monitored. What part of this do you miss?
 
Just like 'smoking' this could be worked out. Seriously. While I give zip to those that wish to harm us, I would wish nothing bad for those that don't. By the very nature of declaring the beliefs, they've opened themselves to being monitored. What part of this do you miss?

You can smoke on their breaks (as I do)

and they can pray on their breaks

If they don't like it they can get another job
 
It's an ancient American custom started by some of the most generous people in the country. You, however, are free to work 24/7 and they will not be offended or behead you.

I dont know you but I sure hope this is all tongue in cheek.
 
the christian religion is the only reason sundays ended up being what they are
 

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