Muslim holiday replaces Labor day at Tyson Foods.

*Bumped to the top*

Nation: Talk about walking right into a minefield without a care in the world. What sort of idiot union would think this will go over well? Throwing away Labor Day?

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. Tyson's Director of Media Relations, Gary Mickelson, stated that while the new contract does not provide an additional holiday, as the union claimed, "the new contract includes eight paid holidays, which is the same number provided in the old contract." "However, the union leadership did request and receive Eid al-Fitr (which is apparently spelled various ways including Id al-Fitr and Eid ul-Fitr) as a paid holiday in place of Labor Day," Mickelson confirmed in an e-mail to the T-G. .....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." Mickelson said that Shelbyville's Tyson plant "does have a prayer room to accommodate the needs of Muslim Team Members." "In addition to regular, non-paid breaks, all Team Members are allotted a seven-minute paid break," the Tyson spokesman said. "Some Team Members choose to pray during this time."

Labor Day is meant for everyone regardless of religion, it is idiotic to switch it out for a religious holiday that only 20% of the workforce celebrates. What is going to happen is this story will get kicked around the blogs and the media with outrage because they have taken away an American tradition for a religious reason. Something that would not fly for any other group. This is going to be a mess.

Update#

Former employee and Shelbyville resident Anthony Proctor said he thinks what's happening is wrong. He said he helped build a special Muslim prayer room that's located inside the plant and that no other Tyson facility has been that accommodating for any other religion. "If we want to go pray, we don’t have one for Christians," he said.

News report from WSMV

Update#: Michelle Malkin has picked this up and the author Brian Mosley who has been working on this and other stories in regards to refugees has the background on the article.

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.