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   Vol. 69/No. 40           October 17, 2005  
 
 
Unionists walk out over prayer breaks at Nebraska plant
 
BY MARY MARTIN
AND HELEN MEYERS
 
NORFOLK, Nebraska—Some 300 members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 271 at Tyson Fresh Meats here walked off the job September 17 to protest company denial of prayer breaks and the firing of 10 workers for “unauthorized breaks.”

The conflict unfolded after the union contract expired in early September, and during talks for wage and health-care improvements and a recruitment drive to increase union membership.

The 300 workers who walked out are Muslims originally from Somalia. Half the workers at the plant are Somalian. The workforce also includes Sudanese, Mexican, U.S.-born, and other workers. Many employees are women.

For years the Somali workers have organized to relieve each other on the line for prayer breaks with Tyson’s agreement. Over a year ago Tyson set up a symbolic “Mosque,” or prayer space with room for two workers.

“Since the union recruitment drive in the plant, the company has been making a lot of problems not only for the Somali workers but for other workers who request a break,” Said Yousuf, a shop steward at the plant and a leader of the Somali community in Norfolk, told the Militant. “Supervisors started telling workers who requested a break, ‘That’s your problem; I don’t have enough people today.’ Then the supervisors announced they would start following workers to the bathroom and write them up if they were using the bathroom break for prayer.”

On September 17, after firing 10 workers for “unauthorized breaks,” a supervisor followed a Somali woman to the bathroom. “This made workers very upset and 300 walked out,” Yousuf said. “Sixty have stayed away until the company takes the 10 fired workers back and agrees to allow us to resume prayer breaks. We told the company all Somalis would quit Tyson and leave Norfolk with our families if we were not allowed time for prayer.”

After the walkout, Tyson officials requested a meeting with the union and Somali community leaders. Yousuf said the bosses pleaded with workers to return. Negotiations are continuing.

Yousuf said police are now posted in the plant parking lot and at the guard shack with metal detectors. Plainclothes cops are inside the plant.

Ahmed Hashi, a Somalian community leader, told the Militant that the company and the local newspaper have painted a picture of Muslims as troublemakers. “Why not say ‘union workers’ in the news stories instead of ‘Muslim workers’?” he said.

“The union backs these workers completely,” Alex Hernandez, international representative of the UFCW, said. “We are trying to get the new contract language to include prayer breaks.”
 
 
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UK meat workers strike over pensions  
 
 
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