Tyson Plant adds Muslim Holiday

[Katy O Ishee]

Tyson plant keeps Labor Day, adds a Muslim holiday

August 9, 2008 NASHVILLE - Union workers and officials at a Tyson Foods plant in Tennessee said yesterday they have agreed to reinstate Labor Day as a paid holiday, and the plant will also observe the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr this year. Tyson had previously agreed to drop Labor Day and substitute the Muslim holiday as part of a new five-year contract to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant in Shelbyville, which is about 50 miles south of Nashville.

 

The decision sparked widespread criticism, from local politicians to talk radio to the Internet. The Springdale, Ark.-based company said it requested reinstating Labor Day after complaints from plant workers and the public. Union members voted Thursday to reinstate Labor Day as one of the plant's paid holidays and keep Eid al-Fitr as an additional paid holiday for this year only. For the remainder of the contract, workers will have Labor Day and a personal holiday, which can be used to observe Eid al-Fitr or another day the employee's supervisor approves.

 

Eid al-Fitr - which falls on Oct. 1 this year - marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. Muslim civil rights advocates criticized Tyson Foods, and a union official said the company's response was disingenuous. "This wasn't something imposed. It seems that this backtracking would be the result of the backlash from anti-Muslim hate [web]sites and Islamophobes on the Internet," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Stuart Appelbaum, president of the union headquartered in New York, said he was surprised by the reaction to the holiday change. "I would have thought that people would have been more sensitive and sympathetic to the concern to the members of our community, who want to celebrate their religious faith," he said.

 

Tyson's previous decision to drop Labor Day as a paid holiday drew intense scrutiny. In a letter to the Shelbyville Times-Gazette newspaper published Thursday, the local mayor and other state elected leaders said substituting Labor Day "for a nontraditional holiday is unacceptable."

[harleyrider98]

Hey ya'al guess who supplies KFC there chickin yup you got it good ole TYSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dee TSLMC]

OMG what the f*k is this world coming to? Never will i purchase another Tyson product. I will protest any and all companies who do such stupid shit.

[harleyrider98]

I never did buy Tyson Products before an sure won't now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Katy O Ishee]

Makes ya want to boycott chicken from them for sure. There is a shitload of Somalians working there. When the plant opened instead of the local people getting the jobs they had BUSSED in hundreds of ourtsiders from Nashville who got the jobs instead of local. They had to call the cops to keep it together .

Fuckn Shelbyville  is 20% hispanic now.

A trucker friend from Pcola said coming up thru Tx. at the border was a billboard said, COME TO SHELBYVILLE TN WE WILL FIND YOU WORK!>

Thye write grafitti all over the bridges and bldgs . They 's none living within 20 miles of us Thank God,

I haven't bought Tysone either since I found out Frankie. It SUX!

[Frankie G.]

Tyson should really re-think this new policy and redicules new holiday that they just imposed.

[Frankie G.]

Now I know never an I mean never to but a Tyson product ever again. I will also make sure to pass on to everyone I can think off.

God bless America

[Katy O Ishee]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention this plant is 16 miles from here. :(