Thursday, December 31, 2015

Meat-Packing Plant Cans 200 Muslim Workers; Due to Workers' Walkout for Better Prayer Area

Some 200 workers -- mostly Somali Muslims -- have been fired from a meat-packing plant in Colorado after staging a walkout to protest what they said were insufficient prayer accommodations, the Reuters website reports today (December 31, 2015).

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the workers were treated in a "discriminatory manner" by managers at the Cargill Meat Solutions facility in Fort Morgan, about 75 miles northeast of Denver.

Jaylani Hussein -- a spokesman for CAIR -- said that the workers objected to new restrictions on their ability to worship on the job, "which they had been granted for a long period of time."

Mike Martin -- a spokesman for Minneapolis-based Cargill -- disputed assertions the company had changed its policy, noting that since 2009 the Fort Morgan plant has set aside an on-site "reflection area" for people of all faiths.

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