Fort Morgan meatpacking plant strives, struggles to accommodate Muslim workforce

From The Denver Post:

 

Posted: 08/21/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

A Somali worker cuts and moves on the line as he trims beef in the manufacturing department at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan. (THE DENVER POST | Joe Amon)

FORT MORGAN — One afternoon this summer, Asha Abuukar said, she approached her supervisor at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant and got permission to go on break.

She washed in accordance with Islamic principles and prayed in a “reflection room” Cargill has set aside where beef is boxed and sealed.

When she returned two minutes late, she said, her supervisor told her that if it happened again, she would be fired.

“I’m sorry,” Abuukar, 41, who also runs a Somali market in town, recalled replying. “I was only praying.”

Although Cargill’s Fort Morgan operation has escaped controversy over accommodating the religious needs of its Muslim workforce, an undercurrent of problems exists, according to current and former workers and Somali translators.

Company officials say they respect religious rights and follow the law but cannot undermine a plant that produces 4 million pounds of beef daily.

“We know that some of our employees would like a guaranteed prayer time every day,” said Cargill spokesman Michael Martin. “That is not the legal requirement, and it would be impractical to accommodate this without shutting down the production line.”

He said the company accommodates the vast majority of daily prayer requests.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers cannot deny a “reasonable” religious accommodation request as long as it does not pose an undue hardship, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Muslims pray five times a day at prescribed times that move depending on the sun’s position. That can pose challenges for plants with many Muslim workers. One-fourth of Cargill’s 2,000 workers are Somali, company officials say.

The number of federal workplace-discrimination complaints filed by Muslims shot up in 2009 and 2010, to almost 800 each year, the EEOC says. Those numbers eclipsed the decade’s previous high mark the year after 9/11.

“It’s not a good thing when you have a family and you are supporting your wife, your kids,” said Abdinasser Ahmed, a former Cargill worker.

Despite concerns from some Somali workers, Matthew Fazakas, food processing contract director for Teamsters Local 455, said Cargill has accommodated the workers on several fronts.

Fort Morgan plant manager Nicole Johnson-Hoffman said management seeks solutions to prayer requests and complaints on a case-by-case basis.

She said Cargill created safe places to pray with two reflection rooms — oversized cubicles with separate spaces for men and women with prayer rugs replacing the cardboard boxes workers were using.

She also said Somali leaders sought out by the company determined workers’ needs were being met.

“We believe people have the right to practice their sincerely held religious beliefs and that it’s our obligation and responsibility to do what we can to accommodate that,” she said.

Cargill has avoided the rancor that has plagued JBS Swift & Co. in Greeley and other food plants nationwide. In 2008, about 100 Somali Muslim workers were fired after they did not report to work in protest of Swift’s refusal to give them a prayer break during the holy month of Ramadan.

The EEOC found Swift had engaged in a “pattern and practice of discrimination” and sued the company last year.

Asha Abuukar said her Cargill supervisor has told her to wait until another break to pray. Or he asks why she cannot pray at home.

Said Abuukar: “We ask, ‘Why you giving us a place to pray if we aren’t given the time to pray?’ ”

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

4 Replies to “Fort Morgan meatpacking plant strives, struggles to accommodate Muslim workforce”

  1. We arre such fools. A Cargill product, or any subsidiary, will never darken my door again.

  2. So, Cargill is yet another corp. who thought it would be a sound decision to hire immigrant muslims only to discover that such cost saving labor decisions will bite them with rabid foracity over and over again. Can’t say the writing wasn’t already on the wall. Instances like this should be broadcast nationwide repeatedly to drive the lesson . . .don’t hire muslims if profits and corp. standards are to be maintained. If companies won’t hire muslims, the govt. can’t justify importing them.

  3. The law says responsible request, stopping work several times a day for prayers is not a responsible request.

  4. Of course, it’s agnosts, atheists and adherents of other religions who are discriminated against and who are the ones that should be filing complaints. What are they waiting for.