umm hussain
Junior Member
Omaha - Supervisors at a meatpacking plant have fired or harassed dozens of Somali Muslim employees for trying to pray at sunset, violating civil rights laws, the workers and their advocates say.
According to Muslim rules, the five- to 10-minute prayer, known as the maghrib, must be done within a 45-minute window around sunset.
The workers at the Swift & Co plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, said they quit, were fired or were verbally and physically harassed over the issue.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations had drafted a complaint to be filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
'I was fired after praying'
The petition compiled testimony from at least 44 workers who had planned to sign the complaint during a meeting on Sunday. The signing was changed to a later date because of a logistical problem.
Jama Mohamed, 28, said he was fired in June for leaving a production line to pray. He said supervisors would not allow him a break.
Mohamed said: "Some of them took the (prayer) mat from me; they started shouting, they started telling me to stop it, and one of them grabbed me by the collar of my shirt.
"I was crying at the time this was happening to me, and when I finished I told them while they were doing that I was in the middle of a prayer."
Mohamed said he was later called to an office, where a supervisor fired him. Mohamed Rage, chairperson of the Omaha Somali-American Community Organisation, said Swift had fired at least two dozen workers for praying since May.
Donald Selzer, an attorney for Greeley, Colorado-based Swift, said only three Somali workers were fired for reasons relating to the issue, and that it was for walking off the line without permission, not for praying.
120 Somali workers quit
Selzer said unscheduled breaks could force unplanned shutdowns of lines.
He said: "That is a significant number of employees, and there is not much of a way to accommodate that consistent with keeping the production online."
The complaint reprised issues that boiled over in May, after 120 Somali workers abruptly quit for similar reasons. About 70 returned a week later, but union officials worried the issue would resurface through the late spring as sunset came later in the evening shift.
Ali Schire, 30, who said he returned to the plant but was later fired for trying to pray, said: "For three days it was all good and we were praying; there was no hassle, no interference, nothing at all.
"All of a sudden after three days it just all got loose, and they were suspending people, they were firing people. Some of the people even had to give up praying at all for fear of being fired."
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2151855,00.html
According to Muslim rules, the five- to 10-minute prayer, known as the maghrib, must be done within a 45-minute window around sunset.
The workers at the Swift & Co plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, said they quit, were fired or were verbally and physically harassed over the issue.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations had drafted a complaint to be filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
'I was fired after praying'
The petition compiled testimony from at least 44 workers who had planned to sign the complaint during a meeting on Sunday. The signing was changed to a later date because of a logistical problem.
Jama Mohamed, 28, said he was fired in June for leaving a production line to pray. He said supervisors would not allow him a break.
Mohamed said: "Some of them took the (prayer) mat from me; they started shouting, they started telling me to stop it, and one of them grabbed me by the collar of my shirt.
"I was crying at the time this was happening to me, and when I finished I told them while they were doing that I was in the middle of a prayer."
Mohamed said he was later called to an office, where a supervisor fired him. Mohamed Rage, chairperson of the Omaha Somali-American Community Organisation, said Swift had fired at least two dozen workers for praying since May.
Donald Selzer, an attorney for Greeley, Colorado-based Swift, said only three Somali workers were fired for reasons relating to the issue, and that it was for walking off the line without permission, not for praying.
120 Somali workers quit
Selzer said unscheduled breaks could force unplanned shutdowns of lines.
He said: "That is a significant number of employees, and there is not much of a way to accommodate that consistent with keeping the production online."
The complaint reprised issues that boiled over in May, after 120 Somali workers abruptly quit for similar reasons. About 70 returned a week later, but union officials worried the issue would resurface through the late spring as sunset came later in the evening shift.
Ali Schire, 30, who said he returned to the plant but was later fired for trying to pray, said: "For three days it was all good and we were praying; there was no hassle, no interference, nothing at all.
"All of a sudden after three days it just all got loose, and they were suspending people, they were firing people. Some of the people even had to give up praying at all for fear of being fired."
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2151855,00.html
:angryred:
