Islamism - 7

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<b>Muslim workers sacked by US meat plant</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The sprawling slaughterhouse, located about 100km north of the state capital, Denver, has sacked more than 100 Muslim employees who walked off the job today after their employers refused to allow them to break their Ramadan fast with prayer, food and water.

<b>Simmering tensions between Hispanic immigrants, mainly from Mexico, and Muslim factory workers, most of them Somalis, erupted during Islam’s holy month when the Muslim employees asked management to shift the break time on the afternoon shift to sunset.</b>

Iftar and its accompanying prayers occur at about 7.15pm in Colorado, or halfway through the late shift at the Greeley factory, one of the largest beef-processing plants in the United States. Muslim employees said they begin their daily fast at 4.30am, some 14 hours earlier.

A statement from Swift said managers had agreed with union officials to shift the break earlier by more than an hour to accommodate the fasting workers.
<b>“On Friday many employees walked off of the job without proper authorization,” the Swift statement said. “This action is a direct violation of our collective bargaining agreement</b>.”
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US law protects freedom of religion, and orders US firms to accommodate their employer’s faith where possible. But legal experts say Ramadan poses complex challenges for massive processing plants like the one in Greeley, because it’s not simple to shift break times for 3,000 employees, and productivity falls when hundreds of workers suddenly leave the production line.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->