Tyson plant replaces Labor Day with Muslim holiday to accommodate hundreds of Somalis

A Muslim holiday has replaced Labor Day as a paid holiday at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville, Tenn., under the company's new contract with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The plant employs many Muslims, most if not all of them refugees from Somalia.

The new paid holiday, one of eight, will be Eid al-Fitr, which "marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting," notes Ann Bagel Stork of MeatingPlace.com. This year, the holiday falls on Oct. 1, notes Brian Mosely of the Times-Gazette in Shelbyville.

"Implementing this holiday was a challenge, since it falls on a different day every year and is declared on fairly short notice," RWDSU Representative Randy Hadley said in the union's press release. "But the negotiating committee felt this was extremely crucial, since this holiday is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians."

The press release said about 700 Muslims work at the plant, but company media-relations director Gary Mickelson "said that Somalis only represent approximately 250 of the 1,200 employed at the plant, a little over 20 percent of the workforce," Mosely reports. The company also accommodates observant Muslims' need for five prayers a day by giving all employees a seven-minute break and providing a prayer room. (Read more) Mosely recently won awards for his reporting on the Somalis' relations with the community.

UPDATE, Aug. 8: A replacement press release from the union eliminated the incorrect figure, and the company said 200 of the 1,200 workers are management and support employees not represented by the union. So, about a fourth of the union workers are Muslim. Meanwhile, some T-G readers "expressed outrage" and national coverage of the contract has made it "a hot topic of discussion on talk radio, the Internet and national TV," Mosely reports.

Company spokesperson Libby Lawson told the newspaper, "Feedback has been thought-provoking. We have received a lot of calls expressing anger and support. We are an American-based company with core values that acknowledges diversity and all faiths.We have chaplains of many different denominations in most of our plants. It has indeed made us reflective about how we negotiate with unions."

RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum declined to answer the paper's questions, but said in a statement, "There's no question that there is a lot of bigotry against Muslims and that this agreement has clearly touched a raw nerve among those who are prejudiced against them. However, the RWDSU has always understood that unions are only strong when they work to protect the dignity of workers of all faiths. That includes Muslims. Our union may be the first to negotiate this kind of agreement, but I have no doubt that others will follow our lead."