Come with me on a little journey here:
Somewhere in America, say a quarter of the car factory employees are devoted Russian Orthodox, and they demand the union contract be revised to reflect what they believe, and celebrate Christmas on January 7 . That other Christmas would be a work day.
I imagine that there would be a lot of news, "Factory Dumps December 25th as Christmas" or something akin to that. Yet it was purely accidental that I found this REAL news story online:
Union workers at a Shelbyville Tennessee Tyson Food poultry factory will not get paid to barbecue chicken this Labor Day. A new five-year contract makes a paid holiday trade, Labor Day for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. Instead of marking the end of summer, the employees will mark the end of Ramadan.(Even if they are non-Muslims? And Ramadan varies year to year, according to our calendar?)
| 2008 | end Ramadan | 30 September | |
| 2009 | end Ramadan | 23 September | |
| 2010 | end Ramadan | 9 September |
Tyson says the switch has nothing to do with religion (Even though the contract also calls for a designated prayer room), but is instead a contractual agreement reached because the majority of the workers asked for it. Union leaders and supportive employees think it makes sense to accommodate the Muslim workers, too. Other workers lament the loss of an "American holiday," and it appears that they are not alone. Some in the community are calling for a boycott of all Tyson products, arguing that immigrants need to adapt to the American way of life.
No comments:
Post a Comment