OMAHA, NEBRASKA // Federal officials say a JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Nebraska should provide Muslim employees with prayer time and not retaliate against workers who ask to pray. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit yesterday on behalf of more than 80 Somali Muslims. A message left at JBS Swift's US headquarters in Colorado was not immediately returned. Hundreds of Muslim workers walked off the job at a Nebraska plant during Ramadan in 2008, saying they wanted time to pray at sunset and break a daylong fast. Plant management adjusted the work schedule the next day.
Non-Muslims counterprotested and management ended the accommodations. The company fired 86 Muslim workers for walking off the job, but have said the firings were not about religion. * AP
