Tel-Chai Nation

First the good news: Hertz car rental company has thrown out 34 Somali Muslim drivers for violating guidelines by praying on company time:

Hertz rental car company has indefinitely suspended 34 Somali Muslim shuttle drivers at its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport location, claiming the drivers’ conducted their traditional, multiple daily prayers while on the company clock. Observant Muslims pray five times per day.

According to a report in Forbes, Hertz reasoned that the employees violated provisions of a collective bargaining agreement and a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached two years ago, requiring employees to clock-out prior to engaging in personal activities — in this case, reciting prayers.

Now the bad news: the Teamsters are going to take up their case and sue:

But that didn’t stop Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, from filing an unfair-labor-practices suit with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging Hertz failed to give the union advance notice of the policy change.

I recommend helping Hertz in any way you can and to encourage them not to cave. I do think this could be a pinnacle example of why in this day and age, it's not a good idea to hire union workers, depending on which unions we're talking about anyway.

Labels: islam, United States