Tyson, union reinstate Labor Day as paid holiday at Tennessee plant while keeping Muslim holiday

Following objections from consumers, local officials, tghe local newspaper and some employees, Tyson Foods Inc. and a union have agreed to reinstate Labor Day as a paid holiday at the company's plant in Shelbyville, Tenn., while keeping as a paid day off the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, which had replaced Labor Day in a recently negotiated contract.

Members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union at the poultry processing plant voted "overwhelmingly" to revise the contract, giving them nine paid holidays instead of eight, reports the Shelbyville Times-Gazette. The union represents about 1,000 of the 1,200 workers at the plant, about 250 of them Somali refugees. Employees who don't take the Muslim holiday will be able to take a paid personal day off.

Tyson said some employees "expressed concern" about the elimination of Labor Day, which gained national attention. Local elected officials also weighed in. "This is not the image we want from Tyson Foods," Bedford County Mayor Eugene Ray, who reported getting complaints from constituents, told the Times-Gazette. "Most of them think that when people come to America, they should do as Americans do, instead of Americans changing and adapting things the way they do, in language, traditions and all of that."

In a letter to the newspaper, Ray, Shelbyville Mayor Wallace Cartwright, Democratic state Rep. Curt Cobb and Republican state Sen. Jim Tracy said that substituting Labor Day 'for a non-traditional holiday is unacceptable'," Brian Mosely writes for the paper. The letter said, "For over a hundred years, Labor Day has stood as a symbol to honor the working men and women of this country. But for the past few years traditions like Labor Day have been under attack. This time it's gone too far and we, as patriotic Americans, must draw our line in the sand." While religious freedom is "a founding principle of this nation" and there is "a long tradition" of allowing worship of all types, the officials wrote, "In America we do not need to allow substitutions and exceptions to our beloved heritage."

Mosely also writes, "Ray also said that a lot of work needs to be done to help the Somalis 'get along with people, how to work with people ... and how to be kind to one another.' This is in reference to the frequent reports from the public of the refugees' 'rude and demanding' attitude that the T-G reported in the ... series published in December 2007. Ray said he is 'still working on that,' meeting with Imam Haji Yousuf, of Shelbyville's Muslim mosque." (Read more) In an editorial, the paper said the union was on "a slippery slope."