Articles in this document:
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Small
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Olympic
Sponsor Tyson Foods Swaps Labor Day for Islamic
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Tyson
Drops Labor Day for Muslim
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'Multiculturalism
Run Amok' as Muslims Repeal Labor Day in
Small
Residents of a
According to the Shelbyville Times Gazette, members of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union wanted a new contract at the Shelbyville plant that "implements a new holiday to accommodate the...Muslim workers at the plant."
Tyson has confirmed that the new contract replaces Labor Day as a paid holiday with a Muslim holiday that corresponds with the end of Ramadan. The company says the new contract will still provide eight paid holidays, which is the same as the old contract.
Brian Mosley is the reporter for the Times Gazette who originally broke the story, which was picked up by the Associated Press. He says Shelbyville residents are very angry that Labor Day has been replaced.
"I would say the community at large...are...outraged, enraged. Very, very angry comments have been posted on our website," he details. "My e-mail box has been flood[ed]. There are people calling for boycotts of Tyson Foods, things like that."
But Mosley notes that he has received a few messages in favor of the decision. "...[B]ut they're in the great minority," he adds.
Tyson spokesman Libby Lawson wishes to make it clear that the contract only affects about 1,000 of the 1,200 workers at the Shelbyville plant and not Tyson Foods as a whole.
onenewsnow.com
Olympic Sponsor Tyson
Foods Swaps Labor Day for Islamic
Shelbyville Tyson Foods Workers Mad at Company, Fail to
Blame
By Sylvia Cochran
Associated Content
Aug 04, 2008
Tyson Foods is hogging the news, but it's not all good. As a
matter of fact, the food giant is inspiring a deluge of headlines that leave consumers
wondering if they should not take their business elsewhere. While with the one
hand supporting
Tyson Foods in Olympic News
Tyson Foods is a sponsor of the United States Olympic Team
and also features prominently on the menu of those touring to
The marketing angle is undeniable: meat is a premier source of protein, athletes rely on protein to build muscle, and by sponsoring the Olympic Team it does not take a genius to connect the dots between winning athletes and Tyson's meat products.
In spite of the all-American image Tyson Foods is portraying
with its Olympic efforts, tempers are flaring in
Mind you, there is only about a month of difference between Labor Day and the end of Ramadan, and all workers will receive the same number of paid days off as before, but to traditional Shelbyville workers this is leaving a sour taste in their mouths that not even the succulent Tyson Foods meats can assuage. Since the contract was arrived at by a union majority vote, Tyson Food simply decided to go along with the request of the majority, or so it would have you believe. Non-union workers still will get Labor Day off.
A Deeper Look at the Tyson Foods
Eid ul-Fitr is a religious holiday observed by Muslims. Labor Day is a secular federal holiday that was instituted as a well deserved day off for laborers. It is firmly entrenched in the American culture as the day of the annual Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon hosted by Jerry Lewis, NASCAR races, and the Taste of Polonia.
Even as Tyson Foods is held responsible by Shelbyville's rural community for this unprecedented step, it is the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union that has forced the change at the behest of its spiritually minded majority workers. Of course, one might ask why Tyson Foods so readily rolled over and did away with a federally mandated paid day off in favor of a spiritual holiday.
The other question that bears answering is whether Christian, Jewish and perhaps Wiccan workers could also be afforded special privileges with respect to paid times off. If one might believe the union, this will not happen until they are in the majority. This brings up the final question: is the union representing all of its workers or is it simply a majority rule outfit that will change with the wind and force upon the minority the rule of the majority?
Source:
http://www.marketwatch.com/
http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/
associatedcontent.com
Tyson Drops Labor Day
for Muslim
Fox News
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
SHELBYVILLE,
According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new 5-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.
Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays — the same number as the old contract.
Eid al-Fitr — which falls on Oct. 1 this year — marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
Union leaders say implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.
foxnews.com
'Multiculturalism Run
Amok' as Muslims Repeal Labor Day in
SOURCE English First
August 5, 2008
Street Insider
The Tyson plant which will no longer observe Labor Day is
located in
"Already we have been told by Barack Obama that it is
the duty of our children to learn Spanish," said Jim Boulet,
Jr., Executive Director of English First. "Now, an American holiday has
been replaced by a Muslim religious festival."
"A new immigrant to
SOURCE English First
steetinsider.com