JBS Swift surrenders to Muslims
source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/09/17/ap5437906.html

A dispute over Muslim prayer time at a Grand Island meatpacking plant
appears to have been settled, a union official said Wednesday.

Dan Hoppes, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers
Union, said management at the JBS Swift & Co. plant has agreed to
temporarily change the timing of the second-shift lunch break to
accommodate workers wanting time to pray at sunset during the Muslim
observance of Ramadan.

Workers previously took the 30-minute break in shifts. The change will
force the entire line to break at once, which Hoppes said doesn't
violate the union contract.

"Hopefully we've got this put to bed," said Hoppes, who met with
workers and management Tuesday.

The news comes two days after 300 Muslim workers walked off the job in
protest of the prayer dispute. Many of the workers, who are mostly of
Somali background, marched to Grand Island City Hall with signs urging
religious freedom.

About 50 people staged a second protest Tuesday at City Hall, Grand
Island police said.

A phone message left with company officials was not immediately
returned Wednesday. Company officials had released a statement Tuesday
saying their hope was to strike a balance between the workers'
requests and the company's operational requirements.

The plant employs about 2,500 people, not including management, Hoppes
said. He estimates about 500 of the plant's work force is Muslim.

The upset workers say they haven't been allowed to pray at sunset
during their holiest month, Ramadan, which occurs in September this
year.

The sunset prayer, known as the maghrib, is the fourth of five daily
prayers required of all Muslims. The prayer becomes all the more
important during Ramadan because Muslims can't eat or drink until
saying that prayer. The timing of sunset at this time of year also
further complicates the matter, Hoppes said.

The temporary arrangement will be in effect the next nine working
days, which will cover the remainder of Ramadan, he said.

No firings have occurred as a result of the protest, though some
workers who didn't call in their absences will receive letters saying
they violated their contract, he said.

More than 100 workers at a Greeley, Colo., Swift plant were fired last
week because the company said they walked away from work before their
shifts ended.

The workers blamed the company's refusal to allow their breaks to
coincide with sunset so they could pray.

The union has investigated claims that a woman was kicked by a
supervisor at the Grand Island plant when she attempted to pray. The
questioning turned up no one who would confirm it happened nor a
witness who saw it occur, Hoppes said.

"I'm not saying it didn't happen. I'm not saying it did happen ... but
no one would stand up and say it did happen," he said.

Swift, which was purchased by Brazil's JBS SA in March, has had
problems with Muslim workers at the Grand Island plant in the past.
Dozens of workers from Somalia quit their jobs last year because, they
said, they weren't allowed to pray at sunset. They eventually returned
to work.

"Last year we really didn't fix the problem," Hoppes said in
explaining why the issue returned this year. "Somehow we got through
it."

Company officials also told him the workers involved in last year's
protest have since moved on and those involved in this year's dispute
are all fairly new employees, he said. It was unknown beyond that why
the company didn't take pre-emptive action to keep the issue from re-
emerging.

The current contract doesn't expire until 2010, but Hoppes said he was
hopeful of not seeing the same issue crop up again next year.

"If we know what we know now, maybe we can get out of ahead of it and
stop it," he said.