| May 2012 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
Muslims are seeking to force US businesses to observe their religion, counter to US law with regard to other religions.
There are businesses that require employees to work on Christmas. US law prevents Christian employees from suing to force such businesses to do otherwise.
There are businesses that require employees to work on Saturdays. US law prevents Jewish employees from suing to force such businesses to do otherwise.
But Muslims are claiming the right to walk off the job to pray, 5 times a day. They did this at Dell. Dell was threatened with a lawsuit by CAIR, and Dell folded, as discussed in this previous post.
Now Muslims are trying the same thing on Tyson:
Muslim employees at Tyson halt strike pending talks over praying
NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) -- Muslim employees at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Norfolk have agreed not to strike pending negotiations of alleged religious discrimination by management.
The meeting between both sides on Friday was productive, said Fardusa Council, a negotiator for the Muslim employees. All Muslim employees had planed to strike if a resolution was not reached, but that is being put on hold as the two sides work together, she said.
The employees are alleging that they are being denied the right to pray -- something that they say was previously approved by Tyson officials, said Ahmed Hashi, a spokesman for the Muslim population in Norfolk.
...The situation began to come to a head last Friday when 10 Muslim employees walked off of the job. Subsequently, the 10 individuals were counseled for violation of Tyson's policies and the union's labor agreement with the company.
Mickelson said the same 10 deliberately walked off the job the following day and were fired as a result.
The Muslim faith requires five prayers, or "salats," during the day, one each at dawn, midday, mid-afternoon, sunset and nightfall. If the prayer is not completed within a specified amount of time, the prayer is then considered void.
..."However, because we're a manufacturing operation, we're not able to let everyone leave the production line at the same time without shutting down entire sections of our operations," Mickelson said. "Since we have more than 200 Muslims working our second shift, this has sometimes been a point of contention and misunderstanding."
..."We'd like to keep our job and keep our religion," Yousuf [one of the Tyson employees to walk out] said.
This is jihad, folks. It is the insistence that those of other religions submit to Islam. Non-Muslim employers must be forced to submit to the demands of Islam, and Muslims must be granted special privileges (like the right to sue people who don't let them stop working for religious purposes) that those of other religions don't have.
We must say to the Muslims, this isn't Iran. This isn't Syria. If you want to live here you have to adapt. You can find companies to work for that let you observe your religion in your preferred fashion, or you can work for other companies and follow the same rules as everybody else. But you can't force a company to give those of your religion privileges that those of other religions don't have.
I just called the Tyson plant and had a great conversation with the plant manager, Randy, telling him how much I support Tyson, and discussing the substance of this post.
You can email your support to Tyson here.
#1
#2The 1964 Civil Rights Act as amended in 1972 puts the burden on employers of Tyson's size to make "reasonable accomodation" of employees' religious needs as long as it does not involve an economic hardship for the employer. What this means is that sometimes orthodox Jews and Seventh Day Adventists can sometimes keep their jobs and not work on Saturday, but the protection is pretty iffy. Union contracts that specify seniority based days off take precedence. Also, trying to get paid days off for High Holidays when companies are giving Christmas and Good Friday as paid days has usually been unsuccessful.
This doesn't sound like it's a union making the demand but rather some kind of ad hoc association of Muslim employees. If it was a union negotiating on behalf of a large bloc of their members to have time set aside for prayer, I don't have a problem with it. When I supervised Muslim employees, I gave them time off on Fri afternoons to attend services at the mosque. If we were busy, though, they wouldn't have gotten the time off. No employer can afford to shut the assembly line down just because a bunch of employees want to pray.
This case is just another example of Muslims using the mechanisms of democracy to ultimately destroy it. I'd like to survey those 200 Muslim Tyson employees and ask them if they would give Jewish employees time off to say the afternoon Mincha prayer service.
#3That's a great point, usamom.
#4Ronnie, thanks very much for this legal analysis.
This sends a cold chill down my spine. Why are Americans so deaf to the Islamic promise of waving the flag of Islam over America? And now corporations are caving in to it. Where is the ACLU? If I wanted to place a Bible on my desk, or read it in the lunchroom or pray, there would be a long list of "offended people" and lawsuits filed by the ACLU on their behalf.
We need to wake up!