Cargill Meat Solutions Muslim, Prayer Dispute

Cargill Meat Solutions: Muslim employees sacked for striking over prayer - Nearly 200 Muslim employees were fired from the Cargill Meat Solutions meat processing plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado, after striking over a dispute involving prayer breaks. A recent policy change altered what was described as the long running practice of allowing Muslim workers multiple five to ten minute breaks to perform the Salaah, the fixed ritual of the Islamic prayer.

The practice was halted and the workers went on protest. Ten days layer they were all let go.

According to the Denver Post on Dec. 31, the 190 Somali workers failed to report to work for three straight days. Despite making every “reasonable attempt” to provide religious accommodations, Cargill Meat Solutions said they were forced to fire the meatpacking line employees after they consistently decided not to show up to work.

“At no time did Cargill prevent people from prayer at Fort Morgan,” said spokesperson Michael Martin. “Nor have we changed policies related to religious accommodation and attendance. This has been mischaracterized.”

Martin claims the company never had policies written into the employee handbook that accommodated the five daily Muslim prayer times. However, a 2011 report from the Denver Post showed that Cargill had created “reflection rooms” – large cubicles with separate male and female spaces with prayer rugs on the floor.

“We know that some of our employees would like a guaranteed prayer time every day,” Michael Martin said in 2011. “That is not the legal requirement, and it would be impractical to accommodate this without shutting down the production line.” However, Martin did say that the company accommodates the “vast majority of the daily prayer requests.”

Employees at the plant, who earn at least $14 per hour, were told not to return to their jobs until the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was negotiating with management on their behalf, reached a conclusion. On Tuesday, after holding out for three days, they were terminated. Some of the Muslim employees had been with Cargill for 10 years.

Jaylani Hussein, a spokesman and executive director of CAIR, said Cargill has never made an issue out of the brief prayer sessions until recently. “The workers were told: ‘If you want to pray, go home,’” Hussein said, adding that the workers would typically deduct time from their paid 15-minute breaks or unpaid lunch. “It's disappointing. They feel missing their prayer is worse than losing their job. It's like losing a blessing from God.”

Adds The Associated Press: “Last week, company spokesman Mike Martin told the Greeley Tribune that because employees work on an assembly line, only one or two at a time can use a prayer area.” According to one former employee, eleven employees tried to leave the line to pray for a few minutes, and this is what started the eventual firing of the Muslim workers.

CAIR and Cargill Cargill Meat Solutions have scheduled a meeting over the firing of their 190 Muslim employees.