In all the hullabloo yesterday over the Swift meatpacking plant controversy in Grand Island, NE, I missed an update from Greeley, CO where Swift fired Somali workers last week when they failed to show up for work. So, here is what was happening in Greeley according to a Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) lawyer in from Chicago to make sure the Somalis get what they want.
Rima Kapitan, with CAIR’s Chicago office, on Wednesday met with Muslim workers recently fired by JBS Swift. She said CAIR is coordinating with an attorney retained by about 60 of the fired workers.
Here then are some nuggets of information offered by Kapitan to the Greeley Tribune:
* Kapitan said more talks are planned this week between CAIR and national officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers, the union that represents production workers at Swift.
* “We’ve been in contact (with JBS Swift) since about a year ago and proposed a number of possible solutions, or adjustments, that would accommodate the workers and not impose undue burden on Swift, but these offers have been unsuccessful so far,” Kapitan said.
* In Greeley, Kapitan said some of the roughly 120 Muslim workers fired on Sept. 10 have starting looking elsewhere for work.
* “A lot of them are demoralized,” she said. “A lot of them moved from out of state to work here, and they’re just asking for a few minutes a day to pray.”
* While CAIR has filed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-related grievances against the Grand Island plant, Kapitan said, none to her knowledge have been filed in Greeley. [See CAIR and the EEOC here.]
* Kapitan said CAIR has notified the attorney representing the Greeley workers that it’s willing to help on behalf of the fired workers.
And then here is a gem:
“We’re here to defend an American ideal, and it’s an American ideal that people from different faiths should be able to practice their faiths in this country,” she said.
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