Muslim meat workers to discuss prayer conflict

Muslim workers involved in a prayer dispute at a Grand Island meatpacking plant are scheduled to meet Sunday to decide what to do next.

OMAHA — Muslim workers involved in a prayer dispute at a Grand Island meatpacking plant are scheduled to meet Sunday to decide what to do next.

Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said Saturday that workers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant wanted to hold another protest, but that he urged them not to.

Instead, Rage said, all the Muslim workers — including those no longer with the company because of the dispute — will meet Sunday to talk about a resolution.

Muslim workers — most of Somali background — have been asking for accommodations with break times to allow prayer at sunset. The issue led to walkouts at the plant this week — not only from Muslims, but also from non-Muslims who protested such accommodations as preferential treatment.


The plant employs about 2,500 people, not including managers. About a fifth of them are Muslim.

Rage said 80 Muslim workers were thrown out of the plant after an altercation late Thursday. When they tried to return for their shift Friday, he said, they were fired, along with 70 other workers.

Seventeen to 19 others were fired late Friday, Rage said.

“They were praying, and praying became a violation in the plant,’’ he said.

Dan Hoppes, president of Local 22 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, described Thursday night’s events differently from Rage. He said that according to management and employees, 60 to 80 people quit late Thursday after raising the prayer issue and creating a commotion.

Hoppes said supervisors had told the workers to go back to work or leave, and they left.

JBS Swift & Co. has confirmed 86 firings, saying the employees were terminated for repeatedly leaving work without authorization.

A message left Saturday for a company spokeswoman was not returned.

On Monday, hundreds of Muslim employees walked off the job, saying they weren’t being allowed to take a break to pray during Ramadan. Break times were then altered on the second shift so that Muslim employees could make their fourth of five daily prayers at sunset.

Then hundreds of non-Muslim workers walked off the job in counterprotests Wednesday and Thursday. Later Thursday, plant managers did an about-face, saying the new break times weren’t working.

JBS Swift & Co. said in a statement Friday that the company is working to resolve the issue.

“JBS values its diverse workforce and has a long track record of making significant accommodations to employees,’’ the statement said. “We work closely with all employees and union representation to accommodate religious practices in a reasonable, safe and fair manner.’’

Source: AP, August 16, 2009