Labor Day Reinstated
August 8, 2008 at 10:36 am by: John Phillips
As previously noted, Tyson Foods and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union had agreed to a five year contract replacing Labor Day with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fetr as one of company’s eight paid holidays. After employee complaints and nationwide furor over the move, the company and the union have agreed that this year, there will be nine holidays, including Labor Day and Eid al-Fetr. (Click here for more.) During the remainder of the contract, there will be eight holidays, including Labor Day and a personal day, which an employee can use to celebrate Eid al-Fetr or any other day approved by an employee’s supervisor.
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Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 10:36 am under
I am proud of the employer and of the union. The NLRA was enacted in the 1930s and is still flexible enough to change to reflect changing times. To hear the talk shows tell it, you’d think Suilman the Magnificent had risen from his grave and was leading his soldiers down the streets of Shelbyville. The union did what a union is supposed to do; represent the interests of its members. The employer did what it was supposed to do; bargain in good faith. Pride, not anger, should have been the emotion du jour.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:22 pmI’m positng the same followup thoughts here that I posted after the large number of commnents on my original post on this subject.
I want to thank all of you for weighing in. I’ll add just a few more thoughts.
I approached this from an employment law standpoint. It pretty quickly morphed into an immigration issue or something having nothing to do with employment law.
I don’t think for a minute that Tyson or the union intentionally committed religious discrimination. Collective bargaining negotiations are tough, and both sides have to give and take in a reasonable manner to successfully negotiate a contract. I’m convinced that happened here. Given the large number of Muslim employees at the Shelbyville plant, it’s not surprising that the parties reached the initial result (which, of course, has now been changed). As a matter of fact, I’ll bet if you look at any company with a large Catholic population–union or non-union–the company has Good Friday as a paid holiday. If you look at any company with a large Jewish population, the company has Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur as a paid holiday.
What happened in this situation isn’t, therefore, unusual when there’s a large population of employees of one religious affiliation or another.
To me, what is still a fascinating employment law question is whether an employee not of the predominant religion would have a basis of filing suit under Title VII, claiming religious discrimination. If so, then it’s possible that a non-Christian could file suit about Christmas being a paid holiday. In my original post on this matter, I expressed doubt that this kind of suit would get anywhere, but it’s still a possibility.
Thanks again to all of your comments
August 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pmRegardless of all these many concerns, the decision to incorporate a muslim holiday (as a replacement for LABOR DAY!) was absolutely crazy. The public outcry was as predictable as sunrise.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:48 amThe only conceivable explanation for Tyson’s agreeing to such a thing would be to put some kind of black eye on the union for making such a demand in the 1st place.