Update September 11th: Over 100 workers fired!
Negotiations involving disgruntled Somali workers, the Union, and Swift & Co, about break times for Muslim workers during Ramadan, broke down yesterday in this latest news sent from Blulitespecial.
When you go to the article at the Tribune, be sure to watch the film (could this sight be an “honor” to the citizens of Greeley as the paper’s editor said of the Somalis last spring). Disgruntled workers or revolutionaries? You decide.
Talks between JBS Swift & Co. officials and Muslim workers seeking prayer breaks during Ramadan broke down Tuesday afternoon and turned into calls of breach of contract.
The roughly 250 workers, who’ve been suspended since walking off the job Friday night, say they will not return to work and may take legal action. They also acknowledge they may face mass terminations.
A mid-afternoon meeting between the Muslim representatives and about 80 of the suspended workers grew heated in a downtown Greeley park when the representatives relayed information to the crowd.
When workers learned the company would not allow break times for prayer, many shouted and crowded around a gazebo from which the representatives spoke. Within 30 minutes, workers split into smaller groups and milled around the park.
[…..]
Upon hearing that news, a group of disgruntled Muslim workers clustered around Isse and said, “No prayer, no work.”
I felt a tiny bit of sympathy here for Swift because as you read this, you can tell a lawsuit is not far off, especially since CAIR must now be involved (note the last section of this article) and in light of the Minnesota decision announced just this morning here. But, only a tiny bit of sympathy because they brought all this on themselves by not paying wages that would keep good and loyal American workers. You just know they were rubbing their hands with glee when it dawned on them, however that came about, that these church volags and the US State Department were importing LEGAL foreign labor to their very doorstep.
And, now this is what they have to deal with, “racial tensions” between Africans and Hispanics:
Sam Wantings, a Nigerian who worked for Swift for four months earlier this year, said he saw frequent racial tensions between Latinos and African workers. He said Africans were regularly discriminated against by Latino supervisors.
Once again, the Tribune skates around what kind of violence occured last Friday night when police were called to the parking lot to supervise the Somalis leaving the plant. Here is how the Tribune earlier fudged the point:
Tymkowych [police spokesman] said police, who responded to the release of workers Friday night, didn’t encounter any vandalism. “If it happened inside (the plant), they didn’t tell us about it,” he said.
The latest article says this of the violence:
… Management blocked restrooms and break areas and that started massive disturbances and conflicts at the plant.”
I hear CAIR swooping in like a big bird.
See our breakdown of how many Somalis have been resettled in the US in the last 25 years here.