All hell breaking loose in Swift meatpacking plant over Muslims

source:
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/all-hell-breaking-loose.../

Strike continued today. Photos of workers protesting Swift surrender
to Muslims: http://www.theindependent.com/home/x140921093/Strikes-at-Grand-Island-Swift-Plant...

Last night I told you
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/swift-caves-to-somali-demands.../
the decision had been made at the Swift & Co meatpacking plant in
Grand Island. The Somalis won when managers decided to give in to
their
demands for shift changes during Ramadan.

But, now all the other workers of all cultures and nationalities have
walked out in protest, just as they had in Greeley, CO
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/workers-protest-somali-accommodation.../
nearly two weeks ago. (Hat tip:
Blulitespecial)

A compromise reached to accommodate prayer for about 500 Somalian
meatpacking plant workers in Grand Island led to a counter protest of
even more workers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant Wednesday.

Workers including Caucasians, Hispanics, Vietnamese, and African-
Americans walked out after clocking in on the B shift shortly after 3
p.m. [A commenter to this news story says that the Sudanese were not
with the Somalis, but with this group of counter-demonstrators]

The objection — a change in the break schedule that leaves B shift
workers shorted of hours Monday through Friday and forces them to work
Saturday to earn at least 40 hours of pay.

“The Somalians say they can only work three hours after sunset, so
we’re supposed to work 7.3 hours a day Monday through Friday,” said
Naomi Jakubowski. “We’re supposed to come in and make up the time on
Saturday or be shorted at just 36 hours.”

“I don’t want to sacrifice my Saturdays with my kids — and I can’t
raise ‘em on 36 hours of pay,” she said. “I’ve got rent, food and
diapers to buy.”

This article from the Grand Island Independent
http://www.theindependent.com/home/x1374605246/Compromise-with-Muslims-on-prayer...
describes the shift schedule changes and quotes Dan Hoppes, resident
of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 22, as saying:
“This will give them time to pray and satisfy their faith.”

The Grand Island plant employs 2500 workers, according to this news
story, and 500 are Muslim.

The multicultural protesting workers, including these women standing
up for Hispanics, didn’t mince words.

Bernadino Orellana said the Hispanic workers have staffed the Swift
plant for 20 to 30 years. The Somalian workers have come in the last
year and changed everything — Swift management has given in to the
minority, she said.

“Nobody should have special privileges,” shouted B shift protester
Tina Ramirez. “Treat everybody fairly.”

Counterprotesters raised objections Wednesday to a pay raise they say
the Somalians were given and were bragging about Tuesday and
Wednesday.

Ramirez went on:

Ramirez said Wednesday that the Somalians come late, leave early and
take frequent breaks and “drop all the time” in prayer right in front
of people, so people are
literally tripping over their bodies.

“They don’t do the work and we have to work double,” she said. “It’s
not fair.”

[.....]

“Everyone has rights. Be equal. Be fair,” a protester sign stated in
the Swift parking lot Wednesday night.

“We all have religion,” Ramirez said. [But, some are more equal then
others]

Apparently Somalis claimed, as they had in Greeley, CO,
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/somalis-fired-by-swift-blame.../
that supervisors physically abused Somali workers and that one male
tried to follow a Muslim female to the bathroom. In Greeley, the
Somalis charged that men went into the locker room and fondled Somali
women’s breasts while trying to remove them from thefloor. The
Somalis know that these allegations involving their women will inflame
their supporters around the world. As a matter of fact, in some parts
of the world,
the allegation alone would get someone beheaded.

Hoppes said the union is continuing to investigate allegations that
some praying workers were kicked by a supervisor and that a male
supervisor followed a female worker into a bathroom as she attempted
to pray. He said witnesses to those events have not surfaced and Swift
is denying either incident happened.

Don’t forget to read the comments to this story, they are pretty hard
hitting. One commenter, Thompson, said:

The people at Swift who made this decision are nothing more than
COWARDS!!!!

Regular working Americans get this, the seriousness of accommodating
and bending over backward to Islamic religious demands. It’s only our
elitists running the US government and the media elites who want to
dismiss the growing storm by telling us we are a bunch of racist ,
bigoted, xenophobes. Notice the counter-demonstrators come from all
sorts of cultural backgrounds and are of various and assorted colors.

And finally commenter AlwaysaHusker said:

If this is part of the global unity, I don’t want any part of it. You
better hold on to your hats, because America is going down.

Just a reminder, the US State Department has resettled over 83,000
Somalis over the last 25 years and dispersed them throughout America.

If you would like to learn how this issue (Somali demands at
meatpacking plants) has evolved over the last two weeks go to our
special category here. http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/category/greeleyswiftsomali-contro.../

Posts are organized in chronological order from the most recent to the
oldest. See “probing the infidel world” here.
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/gates-of-vienna-probing.../

Read especially this post which describes how the accommodation of
Islamic religious demands is part of the “stealth jihad” to bring
Sharia law to America:
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/a-reader-gives-us-an-excellent.../
The Somalis are merely the foot soldiers, the advancing wedge.