EDITORIAL: Religion, race and money: the perfect storm

The last week has been an emotionally searing experience for all involved with the JBS Swift controversy. The episode has leaped over the company fences into the community, as the online forums and letters to the editor have attested.

After much wringing of hands, gnashing of teeth and alleged compromises, the entire issue is back to square one. Parties involved will be meeting today to again see what can be done to cool down the incendiary atmosphere in the plant.

What started as a request by Muslim workers at the Swift plant to have periods of prayer during the month long period of Ramadan, the holiest of months in the Muslim faith, has turned into a racially fueled standoff. Swift officials, trying to do the right thing for the right reasons, agreed to alter the dinner hour for the ’B' shift and allow prayers during the other break times. When non-Muslim employees learned  of the agreement, counter protests were made and things went south quickly.

Production dropped dramatically. Employees were milling about and leaving the production lines. Rumors -- mostly with little truth or weight -- spread rapidly, further eroding an already evaporating line of communication between the company and the employees.

The tense situation became uglier when the non-Muslim employees found out the plant schedule would be altered to accommodate the Muslim demands and the entire plant was to be on a 36 hour work week rather than 40 hour schedule for the rest of the month.

Thus the perfect storm was in place: Religion, race and money -- the mother of all emotional powder kegs.

It is unfortunate the plant had not worked out a compromise or policy months in advance. The blame for that is on both sides. As a worldwide company with several U.S. plants, the company should have developed a company-wide position and firmly communicated it with all employees. The minority-dominated workforce requires a sensitivity and awareness that far exceeds the normal workplace. The Muslim workers also should have come to management much earlier to discuss their issues and try to arrive at a consensus.

We think the company has a right to insist on maintaining a high level of production, just like any other commercial venture. The employees have to realize that they are in a tightly scheduled and competitive industry. While the company has showed every sign of trying to do the right thing for its employees, clearly the demands of the Somalis were not going to work in a factory environment with rapid processing lines.

The claims of persecution or religious intolerance are not appropriate in this case. The company seems to have tried to make concessions. Other groups have a point that they are not given such considerations as were initially granted  to the Muslim workers. It must be pointed out that there are concessions made for Christmas and Easter in most industries given that the United  States is a predominantly Christian demographic society. But Jews and others have thrived in this Christian oriented culture.

The issue that broke the whole compromise was when the employees learned that they were going to have to show up Saturday or Sunday to get their entire 40 hour paycheck. That issue does seem burdensome and unfair to the rest of the plant.

Hopefully this can be dealt with this afternoon cleanly and without rancor. It needs to go away. Employees  have quit, been fired and the plant,  an important economic cog in this region, must get back to production.

Meanwhile, residents of Central Nebraska are urged to refrain from making this worse than it already is. The racial and economic tension is still high. Rumors can only impede the effort to smooth out this problem. There is no reason to make a rough situation even uglier by rude or insensitive statements that will only further expose the raw emotional scars in the city.