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Tyson Foods union reinstates Labor Day as paid holiday after Eid backlash

posted at 11:14 am on August 8, 2008 by Allahpundit
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The lede makes it sound like the union reconsidered under pressure, but read the fine print. Tyson simply decided to give them an extra day this year to make the controversy go away, so now they’ve got Eid and Labor Day off. Which means the dramatic overturning of the previous contract amounts to little more than the union choosing to accept nine paid holidays instead of eight.

Members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and Tyson Foods workers at the poultry processing plant in Shelbyville overwhelmingly voted to overturn a union contract that replaced Labor Day as a paid holiday with the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, it was announced this morning.

The new agreement will increase the number of paid days off for workers in the current calendar year to include both Labor Day and the Muslim observance as paid holidays for workers in the Shelbyville plant…

The union says that beginning in calendar year 2009, a worker who does not observe Eid al-Fitr “will have the option of selecting another day as a paid Personal Day at their discretion.”

“The amended contract will be extended throughout the life of the current labor agreement and will recognize the following eight (8) paid holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and Eid al-Fitr or Personal Holiday upon an employee’s request.

Each employee used to get his or her birthday off, too, but it sounds like that’ll be replaced going forward by the “Personal Holiday.” If you’re non-Muslim, presumably you’ll take it on your birthday; if you’re Muslim, you’ll have to choose between your birthday and Eid. Oh well: Freedom of contract includes freedom to renegotiate, and they agreed to it. Read all of the Times-Gazette story, though, as it features some amusing quotes from local officials pretending that the outrage here had more to do with Labor Day being replaced than with what it was being replaced by. Using a holiday dedicated to the rights of workers to limit workers’ rights to negotiate their own holidays makes no sense to me, but since it’s a red herring anyway we needn’t dwell on it. See the very end of the piece (or this story) for what the debate is really about. Exit quotation: “Their custom is to negotiate everything, but here you go into stores, you don’t negotiate, you make your mind up if you want to pay for it or not.”

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The Qur’an is NOT just a religious document. It is a blueprint for the subjugation of anyone who disagrees with its content.

That in itself should be enough to alert even the most casual of observers to the basic intent of that poisonous book and the implications therein.

hillbillyjim on August 8, 2008 at 11:32 PM

In other words: UNCLE MOHAMMAD WANTS YOU! And he’s pretty much condemning you to hell if you don’t agree. SUBMIT.

SUBMIT. That is the basic message of the Qur’an.

Don’t take my word for it; read it for yourself.

Just food for thought.

hillbillyjim on August 8, 2008 at 11:41 PM

HotAirJosef

I just hope the wind is towards “liberty & justice for all”.

I hope so. But what I meant was that the venues in which the Islamic jihad threat can be discussed fully and honestly are continuing to shrink.

Robert Spencer on August 8, 2008 at 7:24 PM

Utoh.
It is the jihad threat that unnerves me, not the average Muslim trying to get through life and hopefully realizing that America is on the side of the better angels. I am all for accommodation of particular religious holidays – as long as its a set of personal holidays/days of leave. But, for example the invented belief of the hijab – I hear from reliable sources that is an invention of the oppressive jihadis, we should not.
I just hope we can walk a fine line here. I too have a copy of Mark Steyn’s America Alone, and he recommended a dialogue with Islam to help Islam reform itself.

HotAirJosef on August 9, 2008 at 12:59 AM

I will not submit!

Johan Klaus on August 9, 2008 at 2:40 AM

I too have a copy of Mark Steyn’s America Alone, and he recommended a dialogue with Islam to help Islam reform itself.

HotAirJosef on August 9, 2008 at 12:59 AM

One could sooner spin gold from straw.

MB4 on August 9, 2008 at 4:18 AM

HotAirJosef: “Not all Muslims feel that way, for instance many Western Muslims and Turkish Muslims and Southeast Asian Muslims and Iraqi Muslims and Afghani Muslims pray for our success.”

HAJ, how do you know that to be true when Muslims have a doctrine, taqqiyya, of lying to infidels, especially when they are too weak to actively fight non-Muslims who hold power over them? I have seen many Muslim marches and demonstrations and even riots in support of terror but none in support of anything non-Muslim. Where are the Muslim demonstrations for democracy in Iraq, let alone American/infidel victory there?

Johan Klaus: “It’s just the tone of this unnerves me. We can’t paint all Muslims as the enemy.”

Have you examined the tone of the Muslim community, Johan? Does that unnerve you? Certainly if Muslims took a stand against Islamic terror, against Islamic bigotry, against Islamic extremism and publicly promoted democracy, tolerance, and individual rights as the better course it would so much easier to accept them as allies and friends. Where are those Muslims, Johan?

I went to the supposed anti-war march pitched by Muslims and ANSWER here in Washington, DC a couple years ago during the Israeli confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon, blogging it up here. A few things struck me. First, it was not an anti-war rally, but rather a pro-Hezbollah and anti-US rally. I was struck to find a couple Jewish groups there protesting FOR Hezbollah and against Israel. However, there were no such deviations on the Muslim side. Everyone promoted exactly the same position in lockstep.

There is no middle in Islam. It’s the Muslim way or the highway. You are not allowed to dissent, not allowed to think differently, not allowed to go against the majority, which is directed by the most radical elements.

When Muslims in general sympathize with such a radical view of Islam and casually adopt its anti-American views, it is perfectly acceptable to challenge them on those views, every one of them, all the time, everywhere.

Tantor on August 9, 2008 at 2:26 PM

BadgerHawk: “don’t see what the big deal is. The union now gets one extra day off? Isn’t that what unions are supposed to do?”

Exactly. The ultimate goal of unions is to maximize the pay of its members while minimizing the labor they do for it. If they could get their members a day off for Snaildarter Day, they’d do it. That shortsightedness is being played by the Muslims to serve their own end, which is to conquer the world for Allah.

Allahpundit: “Like I said in the post, it all comes down to freedom of contract. The union agreed to the new deal, so that’s that.”

Actually, it’s not quite that, AP. One of the commenters on the story in a local paper who claimed to be a union member said that they never voted on the holiday, that it was negotiated behind closed doors by the union leaders without consultation with the membership. When it was presented to the membership, the leaders told them it was a done deal. So it was presented as a detail in a bigger package, which the membership could accept or reject as a whole. There was no line item veto for the membership. Of course, this is how the petty tyrants of unions push agreements through that are otherwise unacceptable to their memberships. You feed the dog a bitter pill by wrapping it in hamburger.

It reminds me of how the communists infiltrated the unions in Hollywood. They would do all the normal business of the union in the daylight hours but do their radical business at night in the wee hours after the regular membership went home to get some sleep to go to work the next day. Joe Sixpack didn’t care if the union leadership struck a few radical public poses in the union’s name as long as they delivered steady work and raises.

Big S: “What is that impact? People wanting to celebrate their religion’s holidays, and negotiating a way to do it? They were going to celebrate it anyway, but now they don’t have to go in to work that day. If there are enough Muslims in your town, maybe you’ll get an extra day off someday too, if your employer chooses to negotiate one. Maybe kids in school will not have to go to class on Eid, just like they probably don’t have to go on Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. If you’re not Muslim, you can spend those extra days off drinking or going to church or whatever it is you like to do. I don’t see any real problems here.’

You won’t see the real problem until it’s too late. About the time Muslims form 10% of the population is when the problems begin, the Muslim-only sections of town are established, the police are driven out, and Muslims demand to be ruled by their own law. When Muslims form the majority, you won’t get to do whatever you like to do. You certainly won’t be drinking nor going to church nor celebrating non-Muslim holidays. You will be either converting to Islam, accepting a dhimmi status as an inferior subject of Muslim rule, or being killed. That’s where all this is heading.

Tantor on August 9, 2008 at 3:44 PM