"Somali workers fired at Colorado packing plant in prayer dispute", 31 Dec. 2015
Nearly 200 workers, mostly Somali immigrants, have been fired from a meat-packing plant in Colorado after staging a walkout to protest what they said were insufficient prayer accommodations, the company and Islamic advocacy groups said on Thursday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the workers were treated in a “discriminatory manner” by managers at the Cargill Meat Solutions facility...
Mike Martin, a spokesman for...Cargill, disputed assertions the company had changed its policy, noting that since 2009 the Fort Morgan plant has set aside an on-site “reflection area" for people of all faiths... Martin said about 200 workers walked off the job last week and were warned that failing to show up for work on three consecutive days without calling in could jeopardize their employment. Plant managers met with the workers, members of the Somali community and Teamsters union leaders who represent nearly 2,000 hourly workers at the plant but were unable to resolve the issue, he said.
↧