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The Garden Party

Guess I'm sympathetic but,

15 years ago

The town of Lexington NE, and several other towns in NE have large beef packing plants where there are as many as 600 to 800 people employed on their lines. Lately, there has been an influx of Somalis that have been integrated into the production lines and all was well until lately.

Apparently it is Ramadan, the Moslim holy month and the Somalis insist on stopping the production lines at sunset for their prayer and since they fast during the day through Ramadan they also want to eat. IBP tryed to accommodate them but the rest of the production line stopped work saying with that many out of the lines it was no longer safe.

The company back pedaled and said since the workers hadn't given notice at the time they were hired that they would need special priviliges that thay would no longer allow that time out. Next day, about 88 peoples of that faith walked off in protest, they were promptly fired because of ignoring the warning not to stop the lines. Now, there are pickets outsie the plant marching with their signs proclaiming that IBP and Swift are intentionally discriminating against the Moslem religion.

Now there are several lawyers, definetly from out of town, with mid-eastern names giving news statement saying how badly these people were treated and threatening to sue the companies for insane amounts of money.

Strangely, the rest of the Somalis, perhaps 60 to 70 are still working with no apparent demands.

In no way is this supposed to be a political statement or one being derogatory to anyones faith but am just reporting what is happening within a 50 mile radius of here.

Yes, I do have some sympathy for the workers but think perhaps they should be doing something else where it would not shut down an operation employing 500 to 600 people not with the same beliefs as theirs.

I am drawing no conclusions other than the above statement but I'm afraid some out of town lawyer may see the signs of making big bucks out of this unfortunate happening.

I hope the above doesn't belong in Hot Topics because in no way do I want to start any argument but am interested how others feel about this.

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Comments (7)

mwoods
15 years ago
Probably better off in Hot Topics. No way could this issue be discussed without a debate..friendly or not.
gandle
Original Author
15 years ago
I'll ask them to pull the thread, sorry.
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mwoods
15 years ago
I wouldn't even bother with that Gandle,It's just that if you wanted a long discussion about this I'll bet you'd get a good one going over there and it would be interesting.
oakleif
15 years ago
Gandle, It's a shame we could'nt talk abt subject on a situational and not a religious basis.
I could lambast them lawers bigtime. LOL
lindac
15 years ago
Anyone checked out the "illegal immigrant" status of the Somalis?
Thinking about the Postville, Iowa debacle with Agraprocessors......
Linda C
sara_the_brit_z6_ct
15 years ago
Well, before we all jump to conclusions, the International Herald Tribune suggests that they have refugee status, having fled the on-going 20 year civil war in Somalia.

I like to do a bit of fact-checking before jumping to conclusions.
meldy_nva
15 years ago
And no one ever thought about hiring part-time subs to cover the affected shifts?

sheesh, most folks realize that if you have good help, you make reasonable adjustments to keep them.

Also, I doubt that every single [Somali] are of the same religious faith, even in that small a group.

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