Vol. 80/No. 2      January 18, 2016

 

Colorado meatpackers fired
in dispute over prayer breaks

 
FORT MORGAN, Colo. — “We say it is a constitutional right that we can pray,” Mohamed Ahmed told the Militant, describing how nearly 200 Muslim packinghouse workers have been fired by Cargill Meat Solutions here. For years the company had allowed workers to take time during the workday to pray, but now the company says no, said Ahmed, who has worked at the plant for more than three years. The fired workers are mostly from Somalia, with some from Senegal, Mali and the Mideast.

On Dec. 21, these workers walked off the job in protest after company officials told them to go home if they wanted to pray. The company then began firing them, claiming they had violated the company’s three-day “no call, no-show” policy.

“It used to be if there were four guys pulling on the line, then one guy takes prayer break and comes back and then the next guy goes and prays,” said Ahmed, at a Somali cafe near the plant where we joined him and a number of other fired workers. He added that they would be gone less than five minutes and the line didn’t stop.

“We don’t know why this is happening now, but there is new management” in the fabrication side of the plant, said Mohammed Farah.

“Maybe it is because of what happened in San Bernardino and Paris,” said Muse Shafi, referring to the anti-Muslim campaign whipped up in Washington and other imperialist capitals after terror attacks linked to Islamic State supporters.

Sharif Shafi, who worked in the plant for only three months, said that when he started he had to go four days without praying and it was very hard. “Then a worker came to me and gave me a break to pray and I was good,” he said. “Then a supervisor came and said, ‘If I see you pray tomorrow you will be fired.’”

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Minnesota, told a press conference at the Denver Muslim Society Dec. 30 CAIR is negotiating with Cargill to get the workers back on the job and defend their right to pray there.

Denver-based Teamsters Local 455, which has a contract at Cargill, has not commented on the fight.

A similar struggle took place at JBS Swift meatpacking plants in nearby Greeley and in Grand Island, Nebraska, in 2008-2009, after workers were fired over their right to pray there. After negotiations between the United Food and Commercial Workers and the bosses, workers won their jobs back and the company agreed to provide rooms and breaks for prayers.
 
 
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
Kohler workers end strike, make gains but still face 2-tier
 
 
 
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