Muslims are back at it in meat plants with a new EEOC lawsuit. Picking up where they left off in September 2008, when Muslims walked off their jobs after demanding JB Swift accommodate prayer times over the observance of Ramadan.
According to the Tribune, about 100 Somalis planned to march to the Swift plant and protest “peacefully”, unlike Friday when there were reports that they rampaged in the plant when told they could not have their break when they wanted it. For background see my posts yesterday here and here.
that Swift has fired 130-150 of the Somali workers who walked off the production line in protest over break times last Friday. We have reported that there was some sort of violence by the Somalis inside the plant that caused the company to ask for police to be on hand when the workers were let out that evening.
The following day, non-Muslim workers, many of them legal Hispanic workers, protested saying that the “Somalis are running our plant.”
At one point, JBS moved up the second-shift dinner break, so that Muslim workers could observe the holiday -- but management was forced to change its position after nearly 400 non-Muslim workers walked off the job, protesting that the company's decision unfairly catered to their peers.
Fast forward to Obama's America. The feds have filed a lawsuit against JB Swift for not submitting to Islam.
Feds say JBS discriminated against Muslim workers
Federal officials said JBS USA’s Grand Island, Neb., beef plant must provide Muslim workers prayer time and not retaliate against those who request it.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday filed a lawsuit on behalf of 86 Somali Muslims who were fired after walking off the job during Ramadan of 2008.
“[JBS] has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by (1) unlawfully denying reasonable religious accommodation to its Somali Muslim employees; and (2) unlawfully terminating its Somali Muslim employees because of their religion, national origin, and in retaliation for their requests for religious accommodation, and their complaints of denied religious accommodation,” the complaint states.
The suit seeks backpay and other compensation for the workers.
A similar suit was filed in Colorado aimed at JBS USA's Greeley, Colo., beef plant, an EEOC spokeswoman told Meatingplace.
JBS did not respond to requests by Meatingplace for comment.
The company fired the workers in the fall of 2008 for repeatedly walking off the line while bartering for prayer accommodations during Ramadan, a month-long holiday during which worshipers fast from sunrise to sunset.
At one point JBS resolved to move up second-shift dinner break up to 7:45 p.m. from 8 p.m. so Muslim workers could observe the holiday. However, management changed its position after nearly 400 non-Muslim workers walked off the job, protesting that the company's decision unfairly catered to their peers.
The EEOC spokeswoman said the break-time requests the Muslim workers made were within timeframes permissible in their bargaining agreements.
