Muslim Meatpackers Demand Time for Ramadan; Backlash Follows

By Tiffany Ten Eyck, Labor Notes. Posted October 27, 2008.

Muslim workers at meatpacking plants owned by JBS Swift in Colorado and Nebraska walked out in September to demand time for prayer and dinner during their holy month of Ramadan. When the company agreed, other workers, largely Latino immigrants, led counter-protests, complaining that the Muslims were being favored.

A month earlier, Tyson chicken processing workers in Shelbyville, Tennessee, represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), signed a contract that made Eid al-Fitr, the day marking the end of Ramadan, a paid holiday they could take instead of Labor Day. The contract triggered community outrage, but the union said it made sense for the hundreds of Muslim workers.

Eventually, the company added a personal day for all workers and put Labor Day back in the contract.

The meatpacking industry has long had a diverse workforce, but recent events have brought more Muslim workers into the plants, said Jill Cashen of the United Food and Commercial Workers. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has raided meatpacking plants and deported Latino workers, employers have replaced them with workers from Somalia, who have protected refugee status and thus aren't subject to ICE harassment.

According to a 2008 Council on American-Islamic Relations report, though, discrimination against Muslims in all workplaces increased by 18 percent in 2007.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Civil rights law protects workers' requests for accommodation to their religious practices if such adjustments can be made without "undue hardship" to the employer. But disagreements are inevitable as to what "hardships" are and which are "undue," making it necessary for unions to push members' rights in bargaining and the grievance procedure.

Christian workers rarely have to fight for accommodation as Christmas is a public holiday--a paid holiday in any union contract--and Sunday is not a work day in many workplaces.

Unions must take into account the rights of other workers who are understandably not keen on taking on additional hardships themselves. A further complicating factor is religious prejudice against Muslims and non-English-speaking African immigrants.

"We're seeing a trend in unions to enforce civil rights laws and recognize the needs of the workforce as it's changing," said Renaye Manley, organizing director for Interfaith Worker Justice, an organization that promotes workers' rights in the faith community.

WHOSE RIGHTS?

But accommodating one group's needs can both disrupt production and stoke resentment, as it did at Swift's Nebraska plant. The union and management met with Somali workers and agreed to accommodate a prayer time at sunset by moving a scheduled break up 15 minutes.

Other workers walked out the next day. Workers told local press that the company's action was unfair and that the change would shorten everyone's hours and pay, a charge denied by the union. Others said they simply didn't want to see the accommodations made.

See more stories tagged with: immigration, islam, meat-packing, religious liberty

Tiffany Ten Eyck, a veteran of the successful Taco Bell Boycott campaign, is Promotions Coordinator for Labor Notes.

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