The Net is awash in angry emails criticizing Tyson Foods' decision to replace the Labor Day holiday with a paid day off honoring the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr at its plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee. This is not a hoax. Tyson blames the change on union demands, but irate Americans from coast to coast are advocating a boycott to hold the company accountable for what they see as religious favoritism.
Update: In response to the public outcry, the union representing Tyson's Shelbyville workers voted on Thursday, August 7 to overturn the controversial contract and reinstate Labor Day as a paid holiday for all employees. Read more...
Update: In response to the public outcry, the union representing Tyson's Shelbyville workers voted on Thursday, August 7 to overturn the controversial contract and reinstate Labor Day as a paid holiday for all employees. Read more...
Comments
Hello Tyson,
Good-bye Tyson Chicken. Never, ever would I buy another Tyson Chicken product. I will do my level best to encourage everyone I can to never buy Tyson Chicken. I remember 9/11 but evidently Tyson does not!! Traitors!! anything for cheap labor, eh?
Mary Didyoung
Holden Beach, NC
I will never buy another Tyson product and tell all investors to stay away.
Tyson went out of business today as far as my house and money is concerned.
1. 9/11 was the work of terrorists who happened to belong to a radical, fundamentalist sect of Islam. The majority of Muslims, particularly those living here, are neither terrorists, radicals, nor responsible in any way for 9/11.
2. Tyson took this action at the demands of the union for their workers. This union is not made up of all Muslim people, so this is NOT a “Muslim plot.”
3. Boycotts, as proven time and time and time again, are not going to work, especially those touted on the Internet.
4. Use a little common sense, people!
Sandy, take your head out of the sand. Little by little the muslims chip away,…..soon, you will not be ALLOWED out of the house without a covering over your head and face, or be able to use the computer to share your views. You will become a second class citizen and an “infidel”…
Sandy, you go, girl. You nailed it fast and truly.
Bob and Sandy…wake up. Take a look at the news in Marseille and Paris France. The American way of life will be replaced by Sharia if everyone keeps their head buried in the sand believing that their is not a Muslim agenda. Today they demand a holiday…tomorrow the burka.
Granting a paid Holiday for different Religious groups is fine; the only objection I have is to taking an already established holiday and renaming it.
A better fix for that situation would have been to offer the Muslim’s their Eid al-Fitr. But they work Christmas. The same for Easter/Ramadan/Passover/Buddah’s Birthday. Compromise can work in this instance so that those who request these things get the same consideration as others without the company stirring the discrimination pot.
Replaceing a federal holiday honoring US workers with a muslim holiday? This family of 5 will NEVER have Tyson products in it’s home again.
One thing to consider if boycotting Tyson – you need to investigate all the regional brand names that are supplied with Tyson products. Boycotting the Tyson name alone won’t get the job done.
Hey Sandy … you proclaim them to be such good people. These “peaceful” Muslims at Tysons are from Somalia. You ever seen “Black Hawk Down?” Want to make a bet how many of these “peaceful” Muslims at Tysons helped to murder our Soldiers and drag their bodies through Somalia???
Big mistake on your parHere one customer who will by pass any Tyson product from now on
1. Why are so many Somali’s working at Tyson? Sounds like a few got in, maybe in HR, and created discriminatory hiring practices. Great way to contaminate our food supply.
2. Remember “Black Hawk Down?” Why is the U.S. so hung up on making nice-nice when we are the victims? We NEVER get that from any other country. Please read Tommy O’Donnell’s comments.
3. Why was a Federal AMERICAN holiday chosen instead of Martin Luther King Day or Christmas?
4. When are Jews going to start acting like Muslims and demanding more respect? When are the Jewish holidays going to be recognized by Unions, Arabs, the UN, the world? (FYI – I’m Catholic)
5. Anyone who is for this change and will not boycott Tyson should divulge their race, creed and color! Don’t be swayed by what you read. We still have al-Qaeda writing all over the internet trying to sway Americans thoughts to their benefit. Americans are loosing their patriotism and it’s very frightening. Other countries want us to become “global” to bring us down. If we stay American (English as our language – only, etc.) it makes it more difficult for outsiders to infiltrate. It makes the U.S. stronger. We also have to get rid of all the foreigners in our country. The U.S. is the only country that makes it easy for foreigners to buy land and take over.
God Bless America! We need it.
I am so done. I hope they move to Somalia, because I don’t want them here. I see that they are major suppliers of all the major fast food chains as well. I will never knowingly buy another Tyson product; I’d rather eat dog food. It seems like the US is giving our country over to these Muslim Terrorists. Yes, I’ve always believed all Muslims are terrorists. 911 Confirmed my beliefs, and though I never knew anyone lost in that attack, I will NEVER forget and I will NEVER forgive. I used be mad at Johnny Depp’s comment about not wanting to raise his children in the US. Now, I think he was a visionary!
Wait until the new Muslim president…oops, I mean US president gets elected. We are going to hell in a handbasket.
Denise, you are SO stupid and bigoted. Enjoy your dog food–but it’s too good for you.
By the way, I am White and a Catholic. I, too believe as “In Memory of Mike WTC1 says”, Jews need to stand up for their rights as well.
The US has become too politically correct, and so not to offend anyone, we are just giving our country away. No, I don’t want to press 1 for english. English is it..not spanish, french, arabic….Go home and leave our country if you don’t like it.
Way to go Denise! My thoughts exactly.
Tyson is a traitor and their products will never enter my house again.
I already vowed to boycot Tyson Chicken as my way to protest this unpatriotic wimp-like move by Tyson Foods Management. I want to know what other products Tyson makes and supplies to fast food reastaurants so as to make sure that my boycot is complete. I know I will be boycotting McDonalds and Burger King (I can make my own hamburgers from scratch at home) because they buy from Tyson. I’ll not buy from them until they get a new supplier. There are other places too. Which are they ? Oh, and by the way, contrary to what some experts are saying, I will stick with it. That’s going to be easy.
Jose, I can tell you that Tyson has over 400 different products under different names. The hamburger you buy from Walmart is Tyson, Tyson also supplies K.F.C. , Applebees, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Taco Johns, Aldi’s, Sams, Costco and several other places. Just way to many to name. They ship out 3 million pounds of food a week just out of there hub in Kansas alone.
They treat there employee like crap just as Walmart does. And they also got to work on Christmas Eve. For many years their employees didn’t get any raises but gave huge bonuses to management.
wow i guess we are going to have some upset cows lollolhahahahahahahahah
Tyson-I won’t buy your products ever again. Purdue makes a great product.
When my family in the 1920s arrived in the U.S. they wanted to assimulate. Labor day meant picnics and a day off.
Tyson, enjoy your loss of sales. Maybe you can sell to the middle east. Chicken is accepted by many of them, right; better do some marketing research over there….not all of the “religion of peace” accepts chicken as pure.
I am done spending another penny on any Tyson product, and will spread the word also. This is ridiculous, and confirms my habit of NEVER joining the local teacher’s union. What good are the unions, anyhow? They drive wages up to the point companies are forced to relocate or hire illegals. Look at Postville – there’s another example where tons of people turned their heads as illegals continued to work for years at the plant and then when it’s time to process all of these people, it’s always someone else’s fault.
Oh please. Why is everyone getting their panties is a wad. Who cares? Does this personally affect any of the people “boycotting”? It’s not like they declared Terrorist Appreciation Day. Our country is a melting pot and people should learn to live with all people, not just people “just like me”.
Did any one read Urban Ledgends Article before commenting?
1 – this is years old info
2 – it is no longer true
3 – it was initiated by the union not Tyson, (so boycott unions)
Come on Folks, think & research before you react/post.
To Steve,
You’re correct except in one respect: the info isn’t “years old.” The contract went into effect this year and was just overturned yesterday (August 7, 2008) to reinstate Labor Day.
That thing about the Labor Day being re-instated is a bunch of baloney. The Tyson wimp management has stated that the agreement is only for one of their processing plants and Labor day is observed at their other facilities. It makes no difference to me if it’s one plant or not. One plant substituting the Labor Day Holiday for the muslim holy-day is one too many. Go take a hike Tyson mis-management. Oh!, and by the way, I understand Tyson also supplies KFC, so that’s another fast food I won’t be stopping by anytime soon, either. Everyday that passes, I’ll find others that they supply and it’ll be good riddance to them also. I routed this page at work and others there are also on board with the boycot. Perdue, you can crank it -up a notch, and I won’t mind if I have to pay a little bit more. I can sacrifice a little for respect of our way of life and our national values. Yes, we are a melting pot but we line-up single file!!! You come here and you adapt, not the other way around.
To even thinking about such a thing tells me that have forget where you came from. Also, to retract the holiday because of the politicians and angry people still does not help the situation knowing you have the guts to forget about us. There are American’s that can’t even get food and you turn around drop Labor Day that is very important to this country. No more of any tyson brand chicken in our house of several thousands of peolpe in our county and else where.
Tyson Foods is a cruelty factory. The more holidays taken the fewer sentient beings tortured by this dispicable slaughtering company…lets go for 365 holidays a year and give the chickens a break!
Please everyone — we celebrate CHRISTMAS don’t we?????? What is that? We get it off. Why should one of the largest religions have their holly day remembered as well? Since when this is just a Christian world? Where is your Christianity??????????
Before all you who are calling Muslims terrorist — why don’t you call all the Irish terrorist – remember Timothy McVey? What about the IRA? Before you talk so stupid, think about how you sound. You are more radical than the extremist you are against.
This will pretty much end all my dealing with Tyson products. I can beleive that this American based company is supporting this move .. Hopefully you will do better in the Muslim countries……..
GET OVER IT.. maybe in that area there are an abundance of muslims. Tyson is just being fair. but they should give both the holidays off to be totally fair. I had tyson chicken last night and it was delicious.
Does anyone still understand who and why we have labor day? It is not just a day for vacations, picnics and a day off. It was started by the UNION, kind of wierd that the union is allowing people to vote to take it away from their people. It was started to give workers a day off, a way to THANK AMERICANS for their hard work. I don’t care if they make up a floating holiday or save one of their vacation or sick days for their religious holiday as I do for the day after Thanksgiving but to take away a very important day away from the workers is wrong. Before Unions in the US the a lot of the working people were as much as slaves for many companies, many of the workers worked 14 to 20 hours a day just put food on the table and maybe have a penny or so to save for a rainy day. Labor Day is a remembrance of what past workers had to do to get us to where we are today.
Labor Day is comming up in a few weeks, Thank your Fathers, Mothers and Grandparents for what they did for us so we could have the jobs and the pay we have today.
Denise says: “The US has become too politically correct, and so not to offend anyone, we are just giving our country away. No, I don’t want to press 1 for english. English is it..not spanish, french, arabic….Go home and leave our country if you don’t like it.”
How would you feel if that had been told to your parents? Of course, if your ancestors are indigenous to this continent then maybe you can make this statement.
No more Tyson products for me! I did email them a note to that effect. I don’t mind the US having days off for religious holidays but since there are so many different ones in our country, I would like to propose that we set aside some days in each quarter to let all religions celebrate their holy days. If anyone wants to take whatever actual day they think is holy, then that is on their own time. If Muslims have to pray to Mecca five times a day and that does not correspond to the job they are doing, them it is on their shoulders to get a job that would allow it. Would you want your surgeon and anesthesiologist to stop during you emergency operation to wash up and pray! Heck, no! Do you want your kid’s teacher leaving the classroom to go pray? Heck, I think some of them are very religious anyway, muttering things like ‘God give me strength’ all day long!
My money will be spent else where.The reason they have reinstated the Labor day holidays is because of the fall out they are having over the decision to drop Labor day and ad a muslim holiday.Tyson products will never be in my home again if I know about it.
pray that those people leave our country,and asfor buyiny their product,we quit when we foud out their clinton buddies in a money deal under the table
Linda, I think you must be a foreigner, and if English is your second or third language, good for you! If not…well…that’s embarrassing. And Denise, you should be embarrassed as well. This company’s decision affects you in NO way, and your comments only belie your ignorance. This country is GREAT for its compromises and abilities to appreciate people’s differences, not cowardly. Clearly you have no interest in being tolerant or even basically educated, and decided to speak up anyway. The sad thing is that the most ignorant and hateful comments here were riddled with grammatical errors, spelling errors, punctuation errors, and fallacies. It is the uneducated who espouse these radical hateful beliefs, and the educated who are pointing out how ridiculous this is. How patriotic are you really, if you are letting your Fox News propaganda turn you into someone who would rather ignore our Constitution, and all of its silly notions of equality? Who needs diversity when we have plenty of white Christian people who are nothing but zealots? You are the kind of people who are dangerous to this society, not the Muslim workers of Tyson. Accommodations such as a prayer room in NO way equate to “handing over the country to the terrorists,” and I can’t believe I’m even responding to it, but it has to be done. People like you do and say nothing when oil companies exploit fellow Americans who are struggling financially, while their CEOs make staggering salaries. But when one internet story that doesn’t even threaten your way of life comes into your view, boy howdy! That’s a REAL problem, now isn’t it? These workers are not part of the group of American-hating Iraqis who attacked the states….they are actually contributing to our economy, and had they been anywhere as radical as you, they would have done something other than ASK THEIR EMPLOYERS for the things they deem important. They shouldn’t have to hide their religion, and they shouldn’t be put in a group to which they don’t belong: terrorist extremists. This comment page is pretty extreme, and for all you holier-than-thou bumpkins out there, you should try not only researching your country’s history, but your religion’s. Christians have killed so many more people than 9/11 did, and they did it with the same self-rightous, “God is on my side” attitude that those people did. Christians were persecuted for a long time, but they also persecuted pagans, and murdered them. Christian leaders (kings) killed people for not proclaiming Christianity at the drop of a hat, but the thing is, we are supposed to have grown out of that attitude. We are better than that, and we accept people’s differences. These people are no threat to you, just be happy for the workers who get to worship the way they want, just like YOU get to do! And by the way, Barack Obama has less Muslim in him than you “patriotic boycotters” do. He is a rational Christian who believes in the American ideals a lot more than you, apparently. That being said, you have the right to buy whatever chicken you want. Nobody cares about your chicken-eating habits, and no one is super proud of you for making a difference! You just look ridiculous, as you should. I am Christian and white, but my dad was born in Germany. He came here, completely acclimated, has several advanced degrees, and trains intelligent high school students to make 5′s on AP English exams. He contributes to our society in many ways, and he’s a foreigner. If people had persecuted him and called him a Nazi, or somehow unfairly grouped him into a category that simply didn’t fit, he would have gotten nowhere.
And Mary, the fact that you would go so far as to call a chicken company “traitors” just shows how little you actually knew about world issues before 9/11. Maybe look into it. Muslim workers, American or not, are not bullying us out of our country the way WE bullied the natives out. They are taking open jobs producing food for Americans. Would you give up having Christmas off from work if an atheist activist group pointed out that separation of church and state is there for a reason, so as not to promote Christian favoritism? Because if you really believed in your “ideal” then you would. But I highly doubt it. You probably think you “deserve” it somehow. Or is it that you think the only American identity is the Christian identity?
Stop backing up your idiotic ideas with “haven’t you SEEN Black Hawk Down?” like that is in some way the end-all. Please. Go read a book.
And if we actually adopted any of these radical unfair religious stereotypes, we’d have to persecute Jews, because after all, they killed Jesus, and we’d have to persecute Buddhists, because they deny the supremacy of our holy trinity, and the Hindus, because God clearly said that he is the one and only God, and the Hindus clearly worship idols, and the Mormons, because they have secrets and exclusivity and private rituals, and while we’re at it, the Catholics who pray to Mary, because only God should be prayed to…
Don’t let silly things cloud your judgment. Agree to disagree and acknowledge that it will definitely happen in life. And for the record, I go to an extremely conservative public university, and we have never gotten Labor Day off, ever. We do not get any major holidays off besides a longer weekend for Thanksgiving, and winter break which falls in between semesters. It doesn’t mean that my university is a traitor. I’d like to have that day off, of course, but in the big scheme of things…it’s just another day. I can appreciate the efforts of past Americans while I’m in class or at work. It doesn’t undo the importance, which ironically enough envelops all of the important themes that have been completely lost on you. Repeat after me: It is okay to do nice and fair things for people who are different from you. It does not in any way undermine the foundation or integrity of the country.
It is in a company’s best interest to keep its employers happy, and you wouldn’t say a damn word if it were white Christian workers demanding something from the company. But this made it into an email forward, because cool, smart people like you love getting worked up over nothing.
Please don’t reproduce.
CRenee you talk way too much.
Harold, maybe the problem is that you can’t read..
I am going to try to make points that do not attack any previous views and complaints but instead try to see the facts reasonably.
I like to tell stories when I do this, so here goes.
I had a friend that moved to a predominantly Catholic city in Texas. She was atheist and staunchly American in her stance for separation between church and state. She hated hated hated that schools were closed on Good Friday. She thought it was a sign of church creeping into state. I disagreed completely. If you don’t allow the holiday, the people take it anyway. Since schools are payed federal funds according to attendance, they take a hit on Good Friday if it was a school day. It isn’t about religion. It is about being fiscally sound.
If you relate this to Tyson, if the Muslims take the holiday unpaid (as they are allowed to do, as are Jewish, Buddhist, Christian or any other religious person allowed to take their holidays) then Tyson may take a fiscal hit. I read a NY Times article that in fact reports a statement to the effect that Tyson management at that plant were happy that this day would continue as a paid holiday.
Lastly, no one really mentions the fact that Labor Day had not really been day when people took the day off at Tyson. They worked under holiday pay. When reports of Tyson reinstating the holiday, they are really reinstating a policy whereby the employees get holiday pay for working. It is still pro-labor if people need to eat their chicken at a low low price. If people believe strongly in labor day, they should expect Tyson to close down their plant on labor day.
People should boycott Tyson but not for doing something that just makes sense in both a business perspective and a labor perspective. They should boycott them because their work policies are probably very exploitative of all employees, including immigrants. They also probably abuse the animals they sell. I don’t know for sure, but I am guessing because chicken factories by and large do not have good repuations.
I live in Shelbyville and they are taking over what has happened to Americas jobs they have them and are illigal they are in our scholls and I thing that Oboma should move to afgafastan where my family is fighting for our freedom and take the muslims with him!!!
I hope all the folks in Shelbyville are not as ignorant as you proved yourself to be. How’s that second grade class working out for you? My 2nd grade grandson can out-spell and out-think you.