Almost 200 Muslims workers were fired from Cargill in Colorado for not showing up at work over a prayer dispute.
Last month, 200 workers, most of them were immigrants from Somalia, walked out at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan to protest a prayer dispute. Some of them later returned on their work but 150 of them haven't showed up for three days in protest and while representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations negotiated on their behalf.
Cargill spokesman Michael Martin confirmed to CNN that they fired the workers who failed to work for three consecutive days without giving advance notice to the company.
Martin said that the misunderstanding between the workers and the company came on Dec 18, when 11 workers came forward and asked for a prayer break at the same time. He said that the prayer is allowed, as long as it doesn't slow down the plant production.
"Coming from that specific work area would have disrupted the workflow so the supervisor told the employees that they could go pray, but they would have to go in smaller numbers than 11," Martin explained to CBS News. "It would have to be three at a time."
Actually, workers complied with the company's request and they went in smaller numbers to pray but later that day, around 11 workers reportedly resigned. After the said employees turned their badges, other Somali workers heard the dispute and didn't show up at work for three days.
Spokesman and executive director of CAIR, Jaylani Hussein said to The Denver Post that the prayer policy at the plant was somehow changed and Muslim employees were told to "go home" if they wanted to pray.
But Martin argued over Hussein's claimed and said that the company's policies haven't changed and they have provided their employees a religious accommodations.
Around 500 Somalis are still working at the plant and those who were fired may reapply after six months of waiting period.
The Council on American Islamic Relations is still reaching an agreement with Cargill to fast track the return of those who were fired.
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