Monday, September 08, 2008

Non-Muslim workers protest accommodation of Muslims at Swift plant

Robert Spencer

In this we see the inevitable and logical outcome of the allegedly "reasonable" accommodation of Muslim demands in American workplaces: "Somalis are running our plant. They are telling us what to do." The company has "no respect for the Spanish or white people. Many times we are forced to pull extra count... I don't feel that is right." Although this article frames the controversy in racial terms, it isn't really a racial issue at all. It is a question of to what extent American institutions and organizations are going to change their practices and inconvenience non-Muslims in order to assuage Muslim demands. These Muslim initiatives, I have argued, are part of a larger stealth jihad aimed at, in the words of the Muslim Brotherhood, "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

Others see this as sheer hysteria. The "Allahpundit" guy over at Hot Air has expressed sneering contempt for the idea that some accommodations of Muslim practices "send us down the path to the 'complete Islamization of American society.'” Likewise some posts at FreeRepublic were recently brought to my attention (thank you, Jason). One commenter said this about my article about the Muslim demands for changes in the janitorial uniform at Sky Harbor Airport:

This is getting ridiculous. And I don't mean the Somalians' request. I'm talking about the fact that every time anybody Muslim happens to request that they be allowed to wear what they want in a non-sensitive position (I mean, we're talking about skirts vs. pants on janitorial staff for crying out loud), we have some idiot flip out and start screaming that this means that "shar'ia law is coming to _fill in the blank_!!!!!"

I don't see a thing at all unreasonable about this request. None whatsoever.

But this incident at the Swift plant shows that what may seem at first like "reasonable accommodation" has much larger implications. I'm sure that when Muslims at Swift began to demand changes in their break times, many said (as many are still saying), "What's the big deal? So they take a break at 7:30 instead of 9! It doesn't mean we're on the road to becoming an Islamic state!"

This article, however, shows what it does mean: it means that -- as was inevitable given the supremacist nature of Islam -- Muslims will accept no compromise, and non-Muslim workers will feel slighted and resentful. There can be no possible compromise with Sharia provisions: they must be adhered to in full, and once the precedent is set that they must be accommodated, there will be no end to the demands. That is why each of these incidents is important: it's a small accommodation it itself, but it reinforces the precedent that American practices must give way to Muslim ones whenever they clash. Once that precedent is set, it does indeed lead to the Islamization of American society, unless at a certain point non-Muslims are willing to draw the line and say "Thus far, but no farther. No more accommodation of Muslim demands." That line will never be drawn, however, as long as Americans continue to fail to see the larger implications and inevitable outcome of these individual incidents.

This incident is the future. We will be seeing much more of this.

"Facing protests, Swift vows to 'balance needs of all employees,'" by Chris Casey in the Greeley Tribune, September 6 (thanks to John):

A complaint by Somali workers earlier this week that they weren't getting early enough break times to accommodate religious fasting snowballed into worker protests at the JBS Swift & Co. plant Friday.

Employees from both early and late shifts converged in the afternoon in front of the human resources office at the north Greeley plant.

About 100 employees, some of whom were supposed to be working, protested company officials accommodating Muslims by moving their break time to accommodate those fasting for Ramadan, a Muslim holy month. The company allowed Muslim workers to take their breaks about an hour earlier than normal to break their fasts.

The peaceful crowd milled about behind the plant gates signifying its frustration.

"They have no respect for the Spanish or white people," said Brianna Castillo, a Swift employee of four years. "Many times we are forced to pull extra count... I don't feel that is right."

Castillo, who is white, said every race was represented in the protest with the exception of Somalis. Castillo said employees are frustrated by what they feel is a double standard when it comes to other races and Somalis.

"Somalis are running our plant," Castillo said. "They are telling us what to do."

Swift security guards paced the parking lot helping to break up the crowds. Joann Lopez, who finished her morning shift, said she was threatened with her job if she didn't leave, which didn't happen to Somalis when they protested earlier in the week.

Lopez, who is Latino and Catholic, said she is upset because the new schedule forces the second shift to work more consecutive hours after their break.

"They are working four to five hours without a break and that's wrong," Lopez said. "This is hard work, and to go without a break, we feel it."

The problem began on Tuesday when Muslim workers were told they could not break their fast at 7:30 p.m., but would have to wait until their lunch break. For many that break didn't come until about 9 p.m. On Wednesday, Muslim workers gathered outside the Swift plant to negotiate a solution with management. That night they were told they would be allowed to break at 7:30 p.m.

United Food Commercial Workers Local 7, the union that represents primarily production department workers at Swift, responded Thursday by filing a grievance as directed by its membership. The union said the company may have been in violation of its contract, which states that workers must receive lunch break at the mid-point of their shift.

Jack Shandley, head of global human resources for JBS Swift & Co., said late Friday afternoon that the grievance "is just a procedural issue, and we'll work through it." He said company management will talk about the matter with union officials and "it will be done as expeditiously as necessary and as the facts are available."

Shandley said Swift plants have begun hiring Somali workers, whose religion is primarily Muslim, in the last couple of years as African refugees have sought employment in the United States. The aspects of their religion are "relatively new" to the company, which is trying to adapt.

"U.S. law requires companies to, when they can, make reasonable accommodations," he said. "We, like any good employer, try to balance the needs of all employees in respect to their religions and, to the extent that we can do that without diminishing efficiencies. That's what we're trying to do."...

Shandley said he's confident that all the differences can be worked out between the employee groups. This week's events have not caused notable disruption to Swift's business operations, he said.

"We're working with all parties to try to reach a reasonable accommodation," he said. "We think we're reaching that to balance the needs of everybody."

Good luck with that.

Here is some background that didn't make the Greeley Tribune report, courtesy Jihad Watch reader John:

There's much more to the story than what the Tribune printed. It was not all peaceful, as the Tribune has led us to believe. My neighbor, directly across the street from my home, is a Registered Nurse. She is currently employed at the Swift Meat Packing plant at Greeley in the medical department. She was an eyewitness to the building conflict and post-riot damage within the plant that happened at about 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening, 9-5-08.

The Greeley P.D. SWAT Team and many police officers had to come into the plant to stop the destruction by approximately 200 angry Muslims of tables, equipment, and helmets inside the cafeteria at about 7:30 pm last night. My neighbor said that the medical department rendered treatment to one non-Muslim female worker who was assaulted during the melee.

The first Muslim demands came as Ramadan began on September 1. The plant employs about 2,000 workers. The majority of workers in the plant are of Latino descent. The Somali Muslims, my neighbor tells me, constitute a majority of the remaining minority number. They demanded that the union-contract mandated lunch break be moved from 9:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

When management moved the lunch break to 7:30 pm for two days, to accommodate the Ramadan Sharia demands, the majority of workers objected. This is covered pretty much within a racial framework in the Tribune story.

According to my neighbor, there was growing tension within the plant during the swing shift on Friday, 9-5-08. During the afternoon she walked through the plant at the request of management to help identify any Muslims who might be in distress from not eating anything during the day. She told me that there were Muslim men congregated in groups, that she was then asked to attend an urgent management meeting, wherein a decision was made to change the Friday lunch break to 8:00 pm, in an attempt to keep everyone happy.

The announcement was made about the new schedule for the 8:00 pm lunch break. At 7:30 pm the Muslims, about 200 in number, walked off the job, went to the employee cafeteria and began to break tables and equipment. At that time my neighbor was walking back into her medical department. She heard the sounds of the violence and later saw the aftermath of the damage....

I doubt that much of what I am telling you here is going to be printed in the press accounts.

So do I.

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