Tyson Foods in Tennessee: Replacing Labor Day with Eid al-Fitr
Judging from my e-mail, a lot of folks are hopping mad about this weekend’s story from the Shelbyville, Tennessee Times-Gazette concerning Tyson Foods’ decision to replace the paid Labor Day holiday with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Brian Moselely reports that there are 700 Muslims working at the 1,200-employee plant, including some 250 Somali refugees:
Workers at Tyson Foods’ poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day, but will instead take the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in the fall.
A recent press release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) stated that a new contract at the Shelbyville facility “implements a new holiday to accommodate the … Muslim workers at the plant.”
The RWDSU stated that “the five-year contract creates an additional paid holiday, Iidal Fitil, a Muslim holiday that occurs toward the end of Ramadan.”
Eid al-Fitr falls on Oct. 1 this year.
…The press release stated there are approximatly 700 Muslims working at Tyson, but Mickelson said that Somalis only represent approximately 250 of the 1,200 employed at the plant, a little over 20 percent of the workforce.
“All Team Members who have completed their probationary period are eligible for all eight paid holidays including Eid al-Fitr,” the Tyson spokeman said.
The union also claimed that in addition to the observance of the Muslim holiday, “two prayer rooms have been created to allow Muslim workers to pray twice a day and return to work without leaving the plant.”
Check out the comments section at the end of the article for a taste of the local (and growing) backlash against Tyson.
The Times-Gazette reporter, Brian Moseley, has a background piece on his story that’s worth reading. After noting how quickly the story has spread across the wires and the Internet, he writes:
So what do I think about all this?
Clearly, the accommodations given to the Muslims have upset a great many people here and across the county, especially if they believe, as many apparently do, that their traditional values are being suppressed in the name of cultural diversity and political correctness. More than one person has told me that their tolerance only goes so far, and this is obviously one of those times.
I have stated my opinions about the refugee issue itself before. It is my personal opinion that the drive to bring so many refugees to America are not prompted by just good will or concern for the plight of these poor people, but instead for the millions of dollars in federal grants that are available for settling them in this country. According to Chris Coen, who is trying to help out refugees of all nationalities, there is a lot of money to be made in this “profession.”
I also need point out that it would appear that some of these refugees are being used for other reasons. I find some of the allegations about these employment arrangements to be awfully similar to this sort of thing, and it should not be tolerated.
I also have to say that I do not feel that I am “obsessed” or “fixated” with the topic of Somalis living here, as one blogger believes. The refugees have lived in Shelbyville for the past four years, and no one has even addressed the issue until the T-G published the series in December of last year.
I would also have to suggest that the blogger’s opinion is quite possibly influenced by the fact that she makes her living by working with the Nashville refugee community, as she states on one of her other websites.
I am simply reporting on what happens when hundreds of people from a totally alien culture suddenly move to a small town in the rural south — both the good and the bad. I can not control how people are going to react to my stories.
In closing, I’ll just say that I’m going to continue to keep looking into the various issues surrounding our new neighbors so that our community can stay informed. That’s what we’re here for. And that’s what I’m going to do.
I have a feeling it won’t be long before CAIR comes knocking on his paper’s door.
See what others have said
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Trackbacks
- It’s My Party | pamibe
- Union That Endorses Obama, Forces TysonTo Drop Labor Day For A Muslim Holiday | Stuck On Stupid
- Sell Your Tyson Stock! , An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
- Boycott Tyson Foods at The Commissioner’s Corner
- Replacing Labor Day with Eid al-Fitr - Republican Discussion Forums
- GraniteGrok
- Mrs. Happy Housewife
- Bear Creek Ledger » Tyson’s pandering to Somali’s at Shelbyville, Tn plant
- Tel-Chai Nation
- It’s Pretty Incredible… at The Commissioner’s Corner
- Tyson Chicken’s Been Fauna Non Grata With Me… | sassafrassin.com
- Tyson Foods is Chicken » Right Pundits
- Kick the Anthill » Coincidence? I Don’t Think So.
- Michelle Malkin » Tyson Foods reinstates Labor Day holiday
- Tyson’s pandering to Somali’s at Shelbyville, Tn plant « Coalition Against Illegal Immigration
- Tyson’s pandering to Somali’s at Shelbyville, Tn plant « Coalition Against Illegal Immigration
- Tyson’s pandering to Somali’s at Shelbyville, Tn plant « Brian Bonner
- Tyson’s pandering to Somali’s at Shelbyville, Tn plant « The American Patriot
- Tyson Food Plant will drop Labor Day holiday for Eid al-Fitr:WTF « Dianej’s Weblog
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What’s next? 5 times observance on company time?
I cry foul!
Well, it looks like Tyson Foods is permanently off my shopping list – didn’t really like chicken all that well, anyhow.
I emailed Tyson over the weekend & told them I will boycott their products & replace chicken in my diet with pork.
bwakkkkk bwakkkk bwakkkk
Bet this one comes back to bite them in their chicken butts.
Another off of the list. Fine by me… I’ll save some money.
Yup. Just one more reason to not purchase Tyson products.
When government and business leaders act in ways contrary to American culture and the will of the American people, bad things are inevitable. As Michelle has said many times before, these are alien cultures, many of which are not the least bit interested in assimilating into American society. This is not remotely comparable to the Ellis Island history of American immigration.
Muslims in general are at odds with America, and when they are populated here in large numbers (by an anti-American immigration industry) the difficulties of assimilation are exponentially more difficult. Even the millions of Latin illegals currently are clear evidence that people will not assimilate if they are not compelled to do so, or if they came here without that intention in the first place. Large numbers of unassimilated peoples cannot be tolerated unless we can accept another Bosnia within our borders. Note See-Dubya’s post on Brit Muslims killing Brits in Afghanistan.
Robert Spencer and Lawrence Wright’s analysis of Islam makes it abundantly clear that we cannot allow this culture a foothold in the West unless we are prepared to capitulate to their demands or fight wars with them. A laissez faire or pacifist approach to this problem combined with anti-Christian and anti-Jewish bigotry will guarantee economic and cultural disaster. We need an immediate get-tough approach with immigration and the illegal activities of the native enablers who would circumvent law for whatever nefarious reason. That includes shutting off any more Muslim immigration to the US.
I’d say that sums it up pretty well. No more Tyson for our family.
Foul, or Fowl?
-couldnt resist-
This hasnt been a big story around here, but…i don’t watch alot of television either.
I am the kind of person that believes everything should be fair for people. If they are going to do this, they should open up other holidays as well.
This, on its face, appears to be more capitulation to a group of people that would not be made for anyone else.
Depending on how far you want to go, Tyson sells products under a number of brand names.
Recently the super market I shop discontinued carrying the Tyson brand. Tyson has been replaced by a regional product that is superior tasting and superior packaged. Tyson was getting close to fresh from the dumpster in taste and smell. Now that I know who works for Tyson, who would be handling my food, I will never purchase any of their offerings. The Muzzies have some kind of wipe your butt rules that is easily beaten by wash your hands after both numbers.
i hope those 700 workers they’re accommodating is worth the thousands of customers they’ll lose.
good business decision! *thumbs up* /sarc
Tyson, ooff my list. Will never buy their products again. I need to get a subscription to this paper. Fianlly, a newspaper wiht the b*lls to tell it like it is. The writer correctly states the obvious problems that follow the settlement of refugees (muslim refugees at that, a culture totally alien to 99% of America) in small town America. He also says what the PC MSM won’t say about the agencies bringing the refugees here and pushing so hard for more. There is huge $ in the racket and they are in it for the $, not the welfare of the refugees or for Americans. That includes all the chruches as well. Disgusting. I often wonder why we spend tax $ on settling refugees anyway. We are being had and paying for it to boot.
It doesn’t seem to me to be Tyson Foods that changed the holiday. It’s the union, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). They are the entity that sold out their non-muslim members in favor of muslims.
America has become the most affluent society in the world which explains why folks from other nations are endeavoring to get here legally or other wise. Why this affluent influential society continues the attempt to recognise failed, delinquent, and bankrupt philosophies (religious so called or otherwise) of other nations is a mystery to me. This is America; let’s lift up the flag, engage the trumpets, encouraging all to honor the “American” ideologies leaving behind their former allegiances.
Makes sense to me…
Tyson doesn’t like unions. Thus, Labor Day has to go. However, they stay in the liberal media’s good graces by kissing the butt of the left’s favorite religion.
I eat lots of chicken… won’t be buying Tyson any longer.
RedDog #9 That is excellent !! and right on to todays problems. We are being taken over from within.
You can’t have your chicken and Eid too.
Replacing a non religious holiday with a religious one? Talk about double standards. Does Tyson give time off for Easter? What does this mean for the month of December? Will Christmas be out now replaced by Ramadan? Or will they go the other way and replace a Christian religious holiday with the non religious holiday of Kwanzaa?
Tyson will certainly be off the dining room table, but it is also hard to find any of these large chicken producing companies that don’t employ large numbers of immigrants, legal and illegal.
I retired from Tyson in 2004. I’m glad to no longer be a team member, and I’ll no longer buy their products and will urge my family to do the same.
How in the heller do we get our country back? This PC madness has got to stop!!!
Putting the Dhimmis out of business may be the only way they can be stopped. We’re heading into rough economic times, so even a small dent in their profits could have a significant impact. Of course, watch them whine for a subsidy if that happens.
And what’s with this Muslim outreach program by Tyson’s? Is this a job that even Mexicans won’t do? There is something that smells about this, and I’m not talking about Tyson’s chicken. Even if everything checks out, do we really want large numbers of people associated with the Religion of Submission handling our food?
Gosh, I just don’t know. That’s a hard one. Can I get back to you?
fluffy, Interesting. On your list is a company called Iowa Beef Processors. Is that the one that ICE raided recently and arrested 400 illegals? The one the Dems decended on to play their victim politics with?
Thanks, fluffy, for posting that list. It was helpful.
I’ll be definitely steering clear.
And magicarb #3, LOL! Excellent.
Awright, then I want Homeland Security to give me the whole month of Ramadan off.
I am by no means a fan of the “religion of peace”, but from the point of view of Tysons it makes sense. The majority of the union members wanted to change the holiday and if you live by the union, you will die by the union. I find the irony of a union contract negating the celebration of labor day quite funny though.
The minute I read the article I went to their site and told them what I thought and will never buy their products again.
Labor Day is a National Holiday!
.
I blogged about the the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union endorsement of Obama for the 2008 Presidential election and I am trying to link the union to Obama. I was stating fact.
I emailed them that I won’t buy their products. I’m also going to tell these companies I won’t be buying chicken:
It supplies all Yum! Brands chains that use chicken (including KFC and Taco Bell), as well as McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Costco, IGA, Beef O’Brady’s
Wait until a worker collapses into the machinery and is fatally hurt — because they fast from sunrise to sundown.
Looks like there will be less chicken in my grocery cart because the other brands carried by my grocer cost more than Tyson.
Lets here it for diversity! As we divide ourselves into little groups. Poltical Correctness run amok. Obviously the religion of peace has provided all these immigrants with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is why they came here, right? So let us adopt there ways.
Wasn’t Tyson a big Clinton supporter (and I don’t mean athletic)?
My proof reading is a little off today in #32.
PC run amock is right!
This is why I have a big problem with the refugee status loopholes that many of these people exploit. While some refugees assimilate and want to be American citizens, there are many others who expect us to cater to them, their cultural/religious traditions. That a company is doing this speaks more to their need for cheap immigrant labor more than anything else.
ICE really needs to look into this. While I feel for refugees, it is not the US’ job to look after the world. We cannot absorb all these people. Our refugee policies are open-ended because our emotional response supercedes our own domestic needs.
This is a trend that is not going away. When companies will do anything to suck up to cheap labor… they’ll sacrifice anything to keep this segment happy. The only problem is that they’re also reshaping American traditional society for the sake of multiculturalism that further scews what being an American is all about.
America, you must open your eyes.
America, you must open your eyes.
AMEN #35 AMEN
simcoe # 35 -thank you for the link>>>
Wasn’t there a big problem with Muslim students at USC SD -right after 9/11–congratulating the hijackers while in the cafeteria-and (pro-US ) exchange student challenged them–the pro-US student got reprimanded by the administration!!!
AMERICA-WAKE UP!!!!!
I’ve been boycotting Tyson since the Clinton years…
I suppose next Tyson will stop producing pork products and replace them with mutton.
No more tyson for my family.
Well, that’s the last of that brand for me. I refuse to support a company which makes such flippant decisions regarding the cancellation of traditional American holidays like Labor Day.
I shared this thread with my wife, 30. She was, basically, like you on Tyson Foods:
And, I am inclined to agree with her.
I stopped buying Tyson products during the first Clinton term, when it came to light that there were some financial shenanigans between them and the Clintons. I believe at the time there were also health concerns at the Tyson chicken processing plants.
A UNION gives up on LABOR Day? What…..
Me thinks TYSON has opened PANDORA’S BOX. Read this on SCHLUSSEL’s BLOG could not believe it. Very easy to deal with though, NO TYSON PRODUCTS in my fridge… Easy, huh???
An easy boycott for me.
Tyson Foods may well be Dhimmi but this infidel can do with out their products.
Thanks for the list fluffy
—
Allah be mocked
Allie OOP OOP be praised!
What idiots. Purdue makes chicken, right?
I think its worth looking into to see which grocery stores source Tyson for store brands.
I just wrote Tyson letting them know I’m no longer buying their products.
Ditto here! No more Tyson. No roast chicken from Wal Mart, no more buckets of chicken from KFC.
If they sell under another name, how can we find out what the brands are??
Okay. Has anyone found John H. Tyson’s e-mail address, yet?
Never mind. I think it found his contact info:
John Tyson, CEO/Chairman
Tyson Foods, Inc.
PO Box 2020
Springdale, AR 72765-2020
Ph: 479-290-4000
Customer Hotline: 800-643-3410
Fax: 479-290-3923
Email: John.Tyson@Tyson.com
It’s worse than we think the state dept is importing entire muslim communities in to small town America the filthy traitors that’s how these people got here. Your children are now in even more danger your women will be the ones being abused. I can’t stomach what the US guvment has become a sort of witness protection program geared toward 7th century barbarians. Our states and small communities are being contaminated by the guvment I can only hope that in the future these people are tried found guilty and put up against a wall. Tell your guvner that your state is not condis dhimmis paradise.
i stopped buying tyson, while living in Tulsa, OK, after my son came home explaining that tyson’s handling of the chicken waste was polluting the water in OK. also, during this time was the political connection between clinton and tyson that stopped the purchases in my home. i am an avid pork, as the other white meat eater, ever since that time.
tyson is also a large distributor of chicken feed and other animal feed, just in case you are a farmer. they began producing their own feed to solve the high cost of business, this was part of the research i conducted with my son for his school project.
More than half their workers at that factory are Muslim. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to take the day off? They haven’t taken Christmas away from the 500 workers that aren’t. If the majority workers would rather have Eid Al-Fitr off and not Labor Day, what’s the big deal? Unless y’all’s problem is that the majority of the workers, though apparently here legally, is Muslim.
Hopefully none of y’all who are mad are the same folks who complain about secularization when store greeters have to say “Happy Holidays.” Why do you want to ban the observation of religious holidays?
The Big Deal is – THIS IS AMERICA – honor OUR traditions or leave. Yeah, I know I know, I’m a racist. Give it a rest.
#54 Nobody’s banning anything……Jews take off for their holidays as a day off.
The point of this is Labor Day is a NATIONAL Holiday by the gov not a religious holiday big difference!
More al queda propaganda abu jroberts why not join them? No you probably don’t have the guts to do your own killin. We know wha’ts going on and we know that people like you are responsible and we wont forget it.
RedDog,at 9:17am
AMEN!!!
I say we don’t allow any more muslims into our country; but I’m a racist and a bigot, so what do I know!
The German line of my family, going all the way back to our Revolutionary War veteran and his wife, are buried in a country cemetery at a little Lutheran church a few miles out from Shelbyville. I’ll bet that graveyard is a pretty noisy place right now!
It will be very difficult to boycott all of Tyson’s different brandings of its products. The best you can do is to boycott those items labeled Tyson.
That’s were the power is in this instance. We will be boycotting their marquee brand name and product. That will hurt them big.
Send an email to the CEOs address provided by Barry F. (thanks!) and maybe they’ll rethink their position. I don’t care where the workers are from. They are in this country and we celebrate Labor Day!
This is just a union gasping for air. They’ll do anything to try to prove they are still relevant. The union and the muslims need to get over themselves!
“When Muslims are in the minority, they are demure.
When at parity, they are defiant.
What at majority, they are deadly!”
Where are they now in the USA?
Never buy Tyson products anyway, because I don’t like processed meat foods. I usually buy fresh meat and prepare it myself. All the more to abstain now.
I emailed Tyson with my complaint and this is what they sent back:
Tyson still agreed to it but we also need to hit the union
If you mooselimbs do not like American Holidays, get the bloody hell out, and do not let the door hit you in your arse on the way out.
Don’t leave mad, just leave!
You know, I am not opposed to respecting different faiths and traditions. And if Tysons had given the Muslims at this and other plants the OPTION to take off Labor Day or another a religious holiday, i.e. a floating holiday, I would have no problem with it. But to FORCE non-Muslims to take off a Muslim holiday instead of a traditional American holiday seems like more than reasonable accommodation.
Don’t the non-Muslims at this plant have rights? Are they requiring Jewish workers to take off Muslim holidays?
Ten minutes of thought would have made this whole thing a non-issue. I guess that was too much for the geniuses at Tysons Foods.
How many stores or restaurants close on labor day? I suppose you also want all service workers and their managers and store-owners to leave too.
Again, most stores don’t close on Labor day, or even have abbreviated hours. Moreover, this isn’t even a real holiday. It doesn’t have any deep cultural roots. There are no broad or deeply rooted Labor Day traditions (the only national one listed on Wikipedia is the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon). It isn’t a celebration of soldiers, like Memorial Day, or of our founders, like Thanksgiving, or of our freedom, like 4th of July. It has no religious or patriotic value. Its sole purpose in being celebrated at the beginning of September is to prevent anyone from celebrating Labor Day on May 1.
As much as conservatives rant about the ‘nanny state,’ you seem to want to the state to tell you what is and isn’t a holiday.
What? I’m in favor of religious people being able to celebrate religious holdays. I also think Catholics should have off for Ash Wednesday and days of obligation, and that Jews should have off for their holy days. If a business mostly employs Catholics or Jews or Muslims, and they can only afford so many paid holidays, I think it makes perfect sense for them to replace a made-up and contrived federal holiday with whatever most of their workers want to celebrate.
That would be the perfect world jroberts but all of us have seen that when islam moves in other religions are crushed out. Oh they don’t do it too fast that would draw attention. It happens every time we are seeing it today in Britain and Europe. They are not isolated events, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Denmark, France, Serbia, over half of Africa not to mention every muslim country that at one time was something quite different.
One of these spokesmouthes has said that islam is not in America to be equal it is here to dominate it’s the same thing the Bund tried in the 30’s under the guise of America for Americans, certain Americans that is. In many a muslim country they are teaching their children to kill through cartoons and summer camps. You seem to be quite willing to whistle along telling the rest of us to be inclusive.
So given the facts and then taking your argument I have to ask, what’s your motive, how many others are you willing to put in peril? Explain to me why we should follow your advise, explain to me how its going to be different… this time. Being a strict adherent to islam in America demands that you violate the civil rights of many around you, starting with but not ending with women.
Read former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm’s speech on American Suicide.
I don’t know how to link it here. I can copy & paste, but its pretty long, so I didn’t do it now.
To use the link… type up what you want to say. Highlight a word or words. Hit the Link button. Paste the url in the dialog box that pops up and click “OK” that should do it.
I understand the concern, but I can’t agree it’s “bad”. Perhaps it would better if it was just an additional holiday as opposed to replacing one, but Christmas is a work holiday, so there’s a legitimate point. Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur are school holidays. Individual companies may have them as official holidays or not, but employers usually don’t object when their Jewish workers takes those days off, unpaid. Even the first two days of Passover are sometimes acceptable unpaid days off. (The anecdote is the Jew will work Christmas and New Year’s in exchange for the Gentile working Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.)
However, the prayer room is going too far.
While I would not celebrate Eid al-Fitr, my personal experiences with the corruption of organized labor has caused me to believe that Labor Day should be observed by prayer and fasting rather than celebration.
Karan being dumped in the toilet again.
Here is some VERY GOOD chicken.
Fast Fixins out of Oklahoma… ( they don’t like illegals workin’ there either.)
I agree with this.
This is a business decision between between Tyson and its employees. If it’s a bad business decision, then Tyson will lose without a boycott.
Let the liberals worry about a company’s employee relations policies. I don’t think conservatives need to worry about which holidays are afforded to legal employees.
Because of this crap I bought a AK47 and 5000 rounds of ammo with my STIMULUS check….We no longer are Americans. Just a facsimile of what we used to be.. Illegals and PC everywhere. Our enemies actually own our country through owning our real estate, our companies or our loans. We are just a bunch of windbags without the courage to do squat.. I want to know when we are going to band together as citizens and as state militias and stop the selling out of America. The authorities at all levels aren’t doing anything except supporting this crap.
#73,
I understand the tone in which you write. If it was up to me, all Mosques would be searched for weapons, and hate speech. The State Department would be replaced with Honorable service members to this country.
If operation 12th Iman goes off, I suspect we will see a turn around of the PC crap in our country.
PZO your weapon, and do not try to defend a fortified position without support. Hit, and move, Hit, and move.
Over
Read Dick Lamm’s speech on American Suicide
Is this the speech you are referring to?
Yeah, that’s it. I didn’t realize it was from February.
How many times must I boycott Tyson foods? First because knowingly they hire so many illegal aliens, then find out they treat their animals badly and now this? I haven’t purchased food by Tyson foods for so many years and also try to avoid restaurants which buy food from Tyson foods.
I stopped buying Tyson when I heard they shut some plants down for May Day (AKA, the Day Without Illegal Border-Crossers) a couple years ago.
No – Labor Day is an AMERICAN holiday. Here legally or not, replacing an American holiday with the holiday of a religion where 100,000,000 followers wish to see America destroyed is wrong.
No more Tyson products in this household.
I will not be a dhimmi.
No more Tyson products in this household. I will not be a dhimmi.
Good for you!
I would never eatin dat swill anyway.
Can someone with organizational skills put together a boycott of all things Tyson? They probably have other brand names that are part of the company too. Buy nothing whatsoever from this gutless, unprincipled company, or its branch products.
What’s next? Sharia Law?
This is another blatant capitulation to a horrific, brutal religion. Islam, at its very core, is misogynist, anti-simetic, anti-Christian, and advocates terrorism as part of the religious doctrine proscribed in the Koran. Islam is diametrically opposed to every freedom held dear by our democratic Republic, yet Tyson chooses to give its practicioners special compensation?
No chapel set aside for Catholics to pray the Rosary during alloted breaks? Oh yeah, the ACLU would have fits.
I will no longer purchase Tyson products.
#62 is right: this is the fault of the union, not Tyson.
Tyson sucks, but not for this reason.
I stopped buying Tyson years ago when I found out they were in the tank for Clinton, who gave them passes for polluting rivers in return for “donations.”
This is just adding to the heap.
Why not a) make 9/11 a day of remembrance and b) tell these Muslims that they have to work on Christmas?
It’s amazing how unions are celebrated as the backbone of America by the media, yet all they really care about is collecting dues. First, they encourage illegal immigration. Now, their even willing to sell out their own holiday.
Boycott Tyson for their complicity in undermining an American holiday.
I think every Christian should ask for a special prayer room from their employer and see how many actually get one.
This is the response you get back for emailing them about this horrendous decision.
Labor Day Still Recognized at Tyson Foods
Union Contract Provision only at Shelbyville, TN Plant
Springdale, Arkansas – August 4, 2008 – Contrary to recent reports,
Labor Day has not been done away with at Tyson Foods. This issue
concerns only the plant at Shelbyville, TN. The majority of employees
at the Tyson plant in Shelbyville, TN, are represented by the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Stores Union (RWDSU), an American union that
asked for and received Eid al-Fitr, as one of their eight paid holidays,
in place of Labor Day. This applies only to the Shelbyville plant and
resulted as part of the union contract. This change does not apply to
Tyson’s other 118 plants. This is not a religious accommodation rather,
is part of a union-initiated demand.
This change came about as a result of union demands brought to the
negotiating table, and was agreed upon by Tyson in an effort to reach a
contractual agreement with the union. The contract that calls for this
change was unanimously recommended by the 12-person bargaining committee
and overwhelmingly agreed upon by a 4-to-1 vote by the rank and file of
the membership of the union in the Shelbyville plant.
Because of seasonal demand for the product-the plant produces fresh
chicken for retail consumption-the plant has worked on Labor Day for the
past several years (paying the employees holiday pay). It is not
uncommon for a number of our plants to run on holidays due to customer
demands.
The Muslim population at the Shelbyville plant is primarily composed of
approximately 250 Somali employees, who are political refugees and came
to the plant primarily as a result of refugee resettlement efforts based
in Nashville. They were employed at the plant through the Tennessee
Department of Employment Security office. There were three Somali
employees on the twelve-person bargaining committee representing the
union during contract negotiations.
The Shelbyville complex employs approximately 1,200 people.
Approximately 1,000 workers are covered by the union agreement at
Shelbyville.
Jeri Smith
Consumer Relations
Tyson Foods, Inc.