Three Somali women working for Amazon near Minneapolis have accused the company of creating a hostile environment for Muslim workers and of retaliating against them for protesting their work conditions, according to a filing submitted this week to federal regulators.In a letter with the filing, Muslim Advocates, a nonprofit legal organization representing the women, asked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate what they argue are “systemic violations” of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law prohibits employment discrimination based on religion, among other things.
In 2016, when Amazon opened a major fulfillment center in Shakopee, a suburb of Minneapolis, it recruited heavily from the region’s large immigrant population amid low unemployment. At one point it ran buses to the warehouse from a Minneapolis neighborhood known as Little Mogadishu.For more than a year, the Awood Center, a nonprofit focused on helping East African workers, has organized the employees around their concerns about the pace of work, accommodations for prayers and what they see as little opportunity for advancement to management. Awood has received funding from grants as well as the Service Employees International Union.The federal complaint is the latest escalation in an almost yearlong dispute between Amazon and East African workers in the area, which has one of the most organized groups of Amazon warehouse employees in the country.
Amazon gives the workers paid breaks to pray up to 20 minutes, as required by state law, but the employees are still responsible for maintaining the same “rate,” or how many items they must pack in an hour. Ms. Alfred said workers could take longer prayer breaks without pay, for which productivity expectations would be adjusted.Missing the rate can lead to write-ups and firing. The women said they and other Muslim workers feared taking time to pray, making it a “hostile environment” to be Muslim.
The pope does his first TV interview and calls people fools... Who did he insult…
The pope does his first TV interview and calls people fools... Who did he insult…