Public pressure works, in an update on this story. "Tyson workers revote; Labor Day brought back," from the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, August 8 (thanks to Hot Air):
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 provision 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 agreement amends the existing contract negotiated last year, according to a press release from the RWDSU.
In a statement by Tyson spokesperson Libby Lawson, the food processing giant made this request on behalf of its Shelbyville plant employees, "some of whom had expressed concern about the new contract provisions relative to paid holidays."
"In an effort to be responsive, Tyson asked the union to reopen the contract to address the holiday issue, and the union agreed to do so." Lawson said.
The RWDSU membership voted overwhelmingly Thursday to reinstate Labor Day as one of the plant's paid holidays, while keeping Eid al-Fitr as an additional paid holiday for this year only.
"This means that in 2008 only, Shelbyville employees will have nine paid holidays," Lawson said.
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.
"The union is pleased that the will of the workers in Shelbyville to observe and celebrate Eid al-Fitr will be guaranteed as a paid holiday," said Stuart Appelbaum, national president of the RWDSU.
"The RWDSU believes that this is an important sign of respect of deeply held religious beliefs. This Labor Day, the workers at Shelbyville have more reason than ever to be proud of being part of a union."
Concerns expressed
Earlier this week, local political leaders called on Tyson Foods and the RWDSU, asking both entities to reconsider the contract.
While Bedford County Mayor Eugene Ray said the food processing giant has been good to the community economically, "this is not the image we want from Tyson Foods."...
My e-mail to Tyson Foods, saying that our family would never purchase Tyson again (and I mean it), obviously helped! And so did everyone else's!
Bravo, People!
Probably still won't buy Tyson again.
This should have never been an issue in the first place! Replacing Labor Day, an American Holiday is totally unconscionable! I guess those hundres of thousands of e-mails made them reconsider.
There was never an "Eid" holiday in the U.S. before 9/11.
How in the world do we have "Eid" holidays AFTER 9/11? HOW???
I wrote two emails to Tyson Foods, and I urged many of my colleagues to do the same. I know the blogs were full of outraged editorials on the subject. The lesson here is clear: If we passively allow dhimmitude to creep in, it will continue to erode our culture and our freedom. If, on the other hand, we unite to oppose the Islamic agenda, then those who advocate these idiotic measures will see the futility and the folly of their efforts.
Bravo to all those who taught Tyson a lesson in social responsibility.
Great news, however, lets not forget that this step does not mean that they will not continue to establish more Islamic holidays and sharia laws into the fabric of American society. Stealth Jihad is a constant force that does not stop until everything becomes under sharia and Islam.
"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.
-- from the article above
If you correctly analyze these two paragraphs, you will understand that the new arrangement is not a victory for those resisting Muslim demands; it remains, even if slightly reworded, a victory for those making those demands.
Look closely at them. See what they say, and what they mean.
Analyzed correctly, this remains a great victory for Islam.
It is one thing to replace a religious holiday like Christmas or Easter with a Muslim holiday but to replace Labor Day with one is wrong.
There's a huge gulf between allowing employees personal time off, without pay, and expecting society in general and companies specifically, to pick up the tab for what is, by any reasonable consideration, a very personal decision.
Employees should have the option of making up time lost.
Actually what it SHOULD say is:
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 a Personal Holiday upon an employee's request.
Ladywolfnl presents a better response than Tyson foods....
Too late, too little. No more Tyson for me. Still wanting to know how much and where they produce halal fowl.
I hate Tyson, but let us not get irrational about the concession.
The press release from Tyson says:
"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.
So in reality, either Tyson gave an extra day to all employees on the grounds of "sensitivity" to Muslims or they specified that Muslims are allowed to use their "personal" day for Eid or whatever, a personal day which was already granted.
If the latter is true, there is no further issue here, with the noted exception of how this vote to eliminate Labor Day "passed" in the first place.
A day late and a dollar short so far as I'm concerned.
The issue isn't whether they came up with a better solution, which they almost did (Ladywolfnl is right, their language is off).
The issue is that they showed their basic outlook which is all wrong. It's the usual preemtive surrender, and and the usual cowardly eagerness to throw America under the bus.
They have no interest in defending American culture. Would they make such a concession for Hindus or Buddhists? Of course not. Hindus and Buddhists are not threatening. Hindus and Buddhists would be told to take a personal day if they had some foreign holiday they wanted to observe. And that's actually the normal American way.
They're making an exception here all right, an exception from the normal American way of doing things.
The best they could come up with at the end was "Eid al-Fitr or Personal Holiday upon an employee's request". Eid al-Fitr is named explicitly as a suck-up gesture. The "Personal Holiday" is to try to appease everybody else. No real convictions about anything, it's all appeasement all the time.
And they'll make the excuse that it's all about business ... no room for "politics". A familiar quote from pre-WWII Germany. We've heard all this before.
Those Tyson people are made of the wrong stuff.
And it's the Tyson's kind of people that the jihaddis have in mind when they call us weak.
9/11 in the U.S. and 7/7 in the UK had exactly the effect intended.
Ever since these attacks our respective governments have bent over backwards to appease the "moderate" muslims, i.e. the ones who want to islamise our countries' through politics backed up by their "brothers'" violence.
When will people wake up to what Jihad really means?
Violence is a tool to be used by the "moderates" to progress Jihad. They are very carefully kept separate from each other in order for the "moderates" to use plausible deniability and demand ever more "reasonable" demands for "equality for Islam".
Their aims are identical and linked.
They have used this technique the world over.
Probably still won't buy Tyson again.
Posted by: darc
Probably? Definitely not--they shouldn't be making Eid a holiday at all, I don't care what other concessions they grant!
Bravo to all those who taught Tyson a lesson in social responsibility.
Posted by: Chris
Tyson still hasn't learned its lesson! They still have Eid as a paid holiday!
Now that I've learned on their role in the importation of Somalis to the US and the transformation of entire small town communities , I shall continue to avoid their products.
There was never an "Eid" holiday in the U.S. before 9/11.
How in the world do we have "Eid" holidays AFTER 9/11? HOW???
Posted by: darcy
The biggest betrayal yet, to me, and the one I least understand, is the Empire State Building being lit up in green to celebrate Eid, which I understand is to be an annual event. New Yorkers should have rioted in the streets rather than allow this travesty to happen.
Then there's the Flight 93 "Crescent of Embrace" memorial. And doubtless there are many, many other sickening accomodations to islam of which we aren't even aware.
I sent them an email. I'm glad to know it made some difference.
There was never an "Eid" holiday in the U.S. before 9/11.
How in the world do we have "Eid" holidays AFTER 9/11? HOW???
Posted by: darcy
What I think has happened is that after the tragic attack, we bought into the idea that there is something wrong with the west and that it was the west that had caused these Jihadis to come and attack us. However we know the truth that the cause of the attack is their ideology and the belief of expanding Islam etc. Moreover, because the west was not really informed about the true nature of Islam and Sharia we bought into the misinformation provided by the so called western muslims and other so called experts that American foreign policy and Israel etc are the cause of the Jihad against the US.
The present and future administrations should get there advice from is History and what JW/DW have said, and other brave people who are speaking the truth about Islam and Sharia. If the US government looked at history they will find the one simple reason for the attacks and would answer all our questions.
"Islamic enmity toward the US is rooted in the Muslim religion, not recent American policy. In 1786, America’s Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson, joined our Ambassador in London, John Adams, to negotiate with the Ambassador from Tripoli, Sidi Haji Abdrahaman. The Americans asked their counterpart why the North African nations made war against the United States, a power “who had done them no injury”, and according the report filed by Jefferson and Adams the Tripolitan diplomat replied: “It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise."
That says it all for the present condition that we face world wide.
Consider what the West has learned in the past 222 years. Consider what islam has learned since 1786. Compare. Discuss.
"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."
Boycott Tyson Traitors!
How in the world do we have "Eid" holidays AFTER 9/11? HOW???
Posted by: darcy at August 8, 2008 7:03 PM
Like this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Bush+empowers+terrorists
darcy: point taken. Between this, the Empire State Building turning green, and the issue of the stamp with an EID character, it is just too much. The lefitst politically correct wimps among us have to be weeded out. Instead of kowtowing to the moon worshipers, we should be showing them to the door. I do not see them integrating into our communities or adopting American values....I could go on, but is anybody listening?
Muslims are outraged that the Empire State Building is also turned green on St. Patrick's Day because on March 17th, Christians use the Muslim holy color of green to encourage alcohol consumption and touching (pinching if not wearing green) between unmarried couples.
Thinking_One:
Be of good cheer. People listen on this site, and there are PLENTY of lurkers.
Ultimately, we have to keep talking till the culture moves in the right direction.
And cultures move real slow.
A step, but not good enough. The muslim holiday should be the "other personal". As far as I'm concerned, Tyson did not listen, but hoped to pacify all the complaints. It didn't work with me.
Nor me, samhein. And joeblough has it right; the Tyson people are not made of the right stuff. (And I bet Tom Wolfe would agree with that.)
Moslems working with food intended for infidel tables.
I think we have a problem.
Remember the feces covered donuts?
I will not buy Tyson again.
More stupidity, Somalis take the place of Mexicans after INS raid.
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080729/NEWS/213213777&title=Somalis_take_place_of_Mexican_workers_after_immigration_raids