Muslims draft complaint against Swift meatpacking plant
Tension came to a head at a Grand Island meatpacking plant in June, when Jama Mohamed said his desire for 10 minutes to pray at sunset was met with shouting.
After he left the production line and began praying, Mohamed said, supervisors took his prayer mat, pulled him up by his collar and sent him crying to a lead supervisor, who fired him.
"I told him, 'Look, I know I am in America and I know in America there is a freedom of religion for everybody to practice their religion. . . . And as long as you fulfill that — as long as you let me pray — I will always work for you,'" Mohamed, 28, said last week through an interpreter.
Sounds harsh right? What happened to this guy's freedom of religion?!?
Well, he checked it the instant he walked through the door. Despite his heartfelt plee, the 1st Amendment doesn't guarantee respect for your religion from others, nor does it demand employers acquiese to your religious "rights". When you are on the job, you are on the job. You are on company time to do whatever job the company has assigned to you, and, in essence, make them money. If you're not being productive, they have the right to toss you out the door.
Harsh? Maybe. Unfair? Not at all. As the supervisor told him:
"And he said, 'No, that's not acceptable — your prayers are not acceptable here. You're here to work, not pray.'"
And:
A Minneapolis attorney for the Greeley, Colo.-based Swift said unscheduled breaks can force unplanned shutdowns of lines.
"That is a significant number of employees, and there is not much of a way to accommodate that consistent with keeping the production online," Donald Selzer said.
The company pays you to do your job, not to pray. Or to call home and tell your kids you love them, take time out to cheer up a coworker, study for a GED, or write poetry. Not that any of those are less than admirable goals, but they're not things the company should have to deal with. The company has made it clear that walking off the line-therefore killing productivity-is a no-no...for whatever reason. If the people were doing it to tell their kid a bedtime story (and being a good parent) we'd completely understand the firing, but inject religion, and everyone loses their mind.
As the article later goes on to detail, several of the Muslims didn't like the arrangement and quit...well within their rights. If it's not good for both parties, either side has the right to walk away. But no! Muslims aren't getting what they want! Call the ACLU! Call CAIR! There's lawsuits in the air.
As the article also states:
Kapitan said Swift rejected her group's suggestion to allow the Somalis who work evenings to leave in small shifts to avoid disrupting lines. The prayer must be done within a 45-minute window surrounding sunset, according to Muslim prayer rules.
Selzer and Hoppes said the company suggested phasing evening workers to shifts earlier in the day that don't interrupt prayer times.
So the company even offers to change their shift (generous I feel), but that's not good enough.
The complaint reprises concerns that boiled over in May, when 120 Somali workers abruptly quit when they were not allowed to pray at sundown. About 70 of them returned to the plant a week later, but union officials worried the issue would resurface as sundown inched later each day through the spring.
Later sunsets run past evening breaks meant to keep workers from long stretches on production lines.
"For three days it was all good and we were praying — there was no hassle, no interference, nothing at all," Ali Schire said through an interpreter. Schire, 30, said he was among the 70 who quit and later returned.
"All of a sudden after three days . . . they were suspending people, they were firing people," Schire said. "Some of the people even had to give up praying at all for fear of being fired."
Mohamed Rage, chairman of the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said: "They are treating (the Somalis) like criminals now — anyone who prays is a criminal."
You're kidding? So, because some days breaks coincided with sundown, and prayer time, letting Muslims pray while on break...on the days it doesn't, the Muslims must be allowed to pray still, or it's unfair mistreatment? That's akin to saying "I'm allowed lunch at noon, when the ice cream guy used to come around. Now he comes around at 1, so the company has to change my lunch hour. It's not fair that I used to get ice cream, and now I can't." Tough.
I'm getting damned tired of hearing Muslims expect everybody to bend over backwards for them, but will offer no give in return. We expect universities, airports, businesses, and even the government to work around the poor wittle Muslims, but heaven forbid they even give an inch to the mile they're being given.
Christians are expected to work on Sundays, and, if they own a pharmacy, carry Birth Control and Emergency Contraceptive, even if it violates their religious principals, but heaven forbid the Muslims pray on their own time.
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