In a stunning news release last week, Tyson Foods announced that their plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee, will no longer close for Labor Day. Instead, they will celebrate the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Fitr.
Eid al-Fitr literally means "festival to break the fast" and is celebrated at the end of Ramadan, a 30-day period of partial fasting. (I'm sure I'll catch flack for that one but while Jesus may have fasted for 30 days, Muslims don't. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast only during daylight hours and eat after sundown.)
The new union contract which replaced Labor Day with Eid was negotiated and implemented last fall but did not come under public scrutiny until the good folks of Shelbyville discovered that family members who work for Tyson would not be attending the traditional Labor Day barbecue.
Tyson's Director of Media Relations, Gary Mickelson, said the new contract also provides for a company-furnished prayer room in which Muslim employees are allowed to pray during a paid seven-minute break.
Stuart Applebaum, the national president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) said it is the job of the union to "stand up to win respect for every worker's right to practice their faith." And so the RWDSU made obtaining Eid al-Fitr as a paid holiday a priority in their contract negotiations.
I didn't notice anything in the press release about a valiant effort by the union to obtain Good Friday or Easter, Christendom's most holy days, as paid holidays, or of Tyson Foods providing a chapel where Christians may pray. Obviously, an oversight.
Once again, we have the tyranny of the minority. Reportedly, about 20% of Tyson's Shelbyville work force are Somali Muslims who emigrated to the United States but expect to live as though they are still in Somalia.
I think it is extremely illogical to emigrate to nation with Christian traditions and then try to warp that society to accommodate your own religion. Why not just emigrate to a Muslim nation?
If, on the other hand, you insist on coming to America because you value freedom, don't try to impose your religious traditions on American society. Consider taking a personal day to celebrate Eid; don't insist that the entire plant close down for you.
Tyson spokesman Mickelson noted that "implementing this holiday [Eid al-Fitr] was a challenge, since it falls on a different day every year and is declared on fairly short notice."
I suspect someone is trying to dupe Tyson Foods and/or the RWDSU. The Islamic Society of North America has provided dates for the celebration of Eid through the year 2015: October 1, 2008; September 20, 2009; September 10, 2010; August 30, 2011; August 19, 2012; August 13, 2013; July 28, 2014; and July 17, 2015. That's hardly "short notice".
Isn't it ironic that the first casualty of creeping Islamic fundamentalism in Tennessee was the day set aside to honor American working men and women—and that a labor union was instrumental in its demise?
One can only wonder if, when the holiday falls in July, Tyson and the RWDSU will opt to replace Independence Day with Eid al-Fitr.
UPDATE: I had no beef with Tyson's closing their plant for Eid, but I did have a problem with them replacing a traditional American holiday with a Muslim holiday and, apparently, so did a lot of other folks.
In a statement released on Friday, August 8, Tyson Foods announced that the union and the company had changed their minds and reinstated the Labor Day holiday, while keeping Eid al-Fitr as a paid holiday for this year only. After this year, a personal day will be added, which may be used as each employee sees fit.
Union president Applebaum expressed surprise and dismay that Americans were not "more sensitive and sympathetic" to the demands of Muslim fundamentalists.
I am surprised that Applebaum and his union are not more sensitive and sympathetic to American workers and American traditions.
© 2008 by Libbi Adams. All rights reserved.
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