According to the Denver Post, around 150 Muslim workers have been fired after staging a walkout at their Cargill Colorado meat packing plant job. The walkout revolved around a dispute with management concerning prayer. A little over a week ago, over 200 workers walked off the job in protest of new policies concerning prayers. Some returned but the rest have been fired.
Some of the fired employees have been working at the plant for up to 10 years, Hussein said. Cargill had previously allowed Muslim employees to pray at the plant, even providing a prayer room, he said.
Depending on the season, the Muslim workers prayed at different times of the day, typically in about five-to-10 minute blocks, Hussein said. But recently a decision was made at the plant to change the practice.
"The workers were told: 'If you want to pray, go home,' " Hussein said.
[my emphasis]
Cargill is an agricultural giant. Like most big businesses they have a rap sheet filled with everything from safety violations to environmental violations.
In 2011 Cargill was responsible for one of the largest meat recalls on record when it recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey linked to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella. The company was criticized for not moving quickly enough.
In 2012 Cargill found itself in the center of storm of controversy over its role in producing a beef filler dubbed “pink slime” by critics. The following year, the company said it would begin labeling packages of ground beef containing the substance.
And this is also Cargill.
In 2012 the Ohio Attorney General’s office filed suit against Cargill and Morton Salt, accusing them of conspiring to keep the price of road salt artificially high. The case, which is pending, said that the companies “ill-gotten gains” could be as high as $50 million.
They’ve also paid out for gender discrimination, environmental pollution, workers deaths due to criminal violations in safety, and … what am I missing?
The International Labor Right Fund filed suit against Nestle, Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill Inc., claiming the companies are involved in trafficking, torture and forced labor of Mali children enslaved to work on Ivory Coast farms.
The companies declined to comment on the suit, which claims the children were beaten and forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day with no pay and little food or sleep.
Nothing like getting name-checked in litigation concerning child labor and human rights violations. The fact of the matter is that old modes of grinding workers’ bones to make one’s bread doesn’t even get the results ownership claims to want. But in our country, where religiosity is so loudly touted as a virtue, the idea that you would shut down a few 10 minutes breaks is clearly a sign of being rotten.
The workers has previously been using time carved out of a 15-minute break period, or time from their unpaid 30-minute lunch break.
Cargill has a policy stating that any workers who are terminated can not reapply for a position for 6 months.
Cargill’s “Director of Communications” Mike Martin told the news that no company policies had changed, which is strange considering that all of these workers just suddenly decided they had a problem with praying? Even the 10-year veterans had a problem?
The workers earn $14-per-hour and up, and are represented by a union, Teamsters Local 445. About 2,000 people are employed at the plant.
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been negotiating on the workers’ behalf and is trying to get the six-month hiring freeze lifted.