[R-G] Muslim Holiday at Tyson Plant Creates Furor

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/us/06muslim.html>
August 6, 2008
Muslim Holiday at Tyson Plant Creates Furor
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

The union that represents workers at a Tyson Foods poultry plant in
Tennessee has negotiated a contract that substitutes a Muslim holiday
for Labor Day as one of the eight paid holidays at the plant.

The provision, which was proposed by the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union, has delighted the plant's Somali workers, who
account for hundreds of its 1,200 employees. But it has infuriated
many outsiders, leading some to denounce Tyson and the union alike.

"You are a union that is proud of achieving a Muslim holiday and
prayer room?" one person wrote the union. "A union in the U.S.A., a
country based on Christianity. You call yourselves Americans? Have you
forgotten 9/11?"

Another wrote: "You had no right to drop Labor Day. Muslim employees
must integrate Labor Day into THEIR lives if they are going to live in
America."

Stung by the criticism, Stuart Appelbaum, the union's president, said
the decision was fully consistent with the spirit of Labor Day.

"We in the labor movement have always understood that unions are only
strong when we work to protect the dignity of all faiths, and that
includes Muslims," said Mr. Appelbaum, who also serves as president of
the Jewish Labor Committee.

"What we negotiated was the will of the workers," said Mr. Appelbaum,
who added that his was the first union to negotiate a paid day off for
a Muslim holiday and that he was sure Tyson would not be the last
employer to agree.

The plant affected is in the town of Shelbyville, some 40 miles south
of Nashville. Under a five-year contract there, Id al-Fitr, which
marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, is now
one of the plant's eight paid holidays.

Union officials said the two Somali immigrants on the union's
eight-member bargaining committee had been eager to make Id al-Fitr
(pronounced eed-al-FIT-tr) a paid holiday. The union agreed to do so
at the expense of Labor Day in part because it did not want to trade
Christmas, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day or other existing paid
holidays, and in part because Tyson has usually required the plant's
employees to work on Labor Day anyway. (Employees received a holiday
premium for working that day.)

"We had worked 23 Labor Days in a row; it wasn't like it was a day to
spend with our family," said Randy Hadley, a union representative who
helped negotiate the contract.

Mr. Hadley said both management and union were surprised when nearly
all the Somali workers — Tyson puts their number at 250, the union at
nearly 400 — did not work on Id al-Fitr last year. They were not paid,
but the plant almost had to close that day, said Mr. Hadley, adding
that management was "elated" by the proposal to make Id al-Fitr a
holiday.

The contract was negotiated last year and approved by workers in
November. But the holiday provision largely escaped public notice
until a local newspaper published an article about it last week. Many
anti-immigrant bloggers and conservative commentators have since
berated Tyson, urging a boycott.

Thrown on the defensive, the company issued a statement Monday saying:
"Contrary to recent reports, Labor Day is still a holiday at Tyson
Foods. The issue concerns only the plant at Shelbyville."

"This is not a religious accommodation," the statement added. "Rather,
it is a union-initiated contract demand."

Libby Lawson, a Tyson spokeswoman, noted that the plant had three
Christian chaplains, and prayer rooms for Muslims and Christians
alike.