Monterey Bay Forum

Islamic shuttle bus drivers in Seattle refuse to clock in and out for paid breaks for prayers

Shuttle buses must be reliable and get people to and from the airport. So it seems reasonable that shuttle bus drivers must keep to a schedule.

Requiring Hertz drivers to clock in and out when taking breaks appears necessary to doing what Hertz has a contract to do: move people to and fro in a realiable manner.

So when 34 shuttle bus drivers in Seattle, WA who happen to be Muslim refuse to clock in and out when they take breaks for prayer time — or for what ever they want to do — and they get suspended for not clocking in and out … What am I not getting? written by Dr. Jackson

The following is from Jehad Watch and very worth reading:

Jihad Watch Seattle: Hertz suspends 34 Muslim airport shuttle drivers for abusing break time over prayers “Perhaps they thought that they could force the issue if they acted in sufficient numbers:

“The workers had been repeatedly told they needed to clock out and that the 34 suspended workers had not complied.”

“… it’s not about pay — break time is paid time — but to ensure that workers were staying within the 10-minute time slots, which has been a problem.”

“Muslim workers who clocked out were not suspended.”

Hertz has tried to make reasonable accommodations, and they have a business to run that depends on efficiency and reliability. But note the false dichotomy implied by the spokesman below: either the drivers are allowed to break the rules as they see fit, or their families will starve.

“Hertz suspends praying Muslim shuttle drivers,” by Lornet Turnbull for the Seattle Times, October 7:

In the three years she’s worked as a shuttle driver for Hertz at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Zainab Aweis, had always taken time out of her shift each day to pray.

An observant Muslim, she prays five times a day — with one, sometimes two of those prayer times falling during her shift.

“That was the one benefit of the job,” the 20-year-old said.

On Friday, she and 33 other drivers — all of them Somali Muslims — were suspended indefinitely from their jobs after they took religious breaks to pray while at work without first clocking out.

A spokesman for Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, said it is trying to get the workers back on the job.
Both the company and the union late Thursday said they were waiting to hear back from the other.

While the drivers were allowed two, 10-minute breaks during their work shifts during which they could pray, Teamsters officials said managers had agreed in negotiations that workers would not have to clock out and in, though the contact itself does not address the matter.

And the workers and their union said Hertz had previously not required that workers clock out for prayer. The union said it has filed an unfair-labor-practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Hertz for failing to notify the union in advance of what it called a policy change.
But Hertz said the rules aren’t new; that it had been trying for some time to enforce the terms of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settlement it reached with the workers two years ago that required them to clock out.
A Hertz spokesman said the workers had been repeatedly told they needed to clock out and that the 34 suspended workers had not complied.
“We felt it was reasonable for our Muslim employees who need to pray a couple times during the workday to clock in and clock out,” said Rich Broome, spokesman for Hertz.
Broome said it’s not about pay — break time is paid time — but to ensure that workers were staying within the 10-minute time slots, which has been a problem.
He pointed out that Muslim workers who clocked out were not suspended.
On Wednesday, a few dozen people from area labor and faith organizations protested on behalf of the workers outside the Hertz counter at the airport, waving signs saying, “Respect me, Respect my religion.”
The Teamsters represents about 79 drivers at Hertz — about 70 percent of whom are Muslim — earning between $9.15 and $9.95 an hour. They receive no health benefits, vacation or sick leave.
Aweis said she was not aware the rules had changed until she arrived at work on Friday and managers told her and six other women who were about to pray that several other workers had been sent home that day for praying.
“He said, ‘If you guys pray, you go home,’ ” Aweis recalled.
“I said, ‘Is that a new rule?’ And he said, ‘yes.’ ”
They prayed anyway, she said, contending that managers stood over them taunting and disrupting them.
“I like the job,” Aweis said. “But if I can’t pray, I don’t see the benefit.”
Income?

Mohamed Hassan, of the Somali Community Services Coalition, said the workers cannot afford to be away from their jobs. “They need to pay rent and buy food for their children.”Posted by Marisol on October 7, 2011 9:30 AM | 13 Comments
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13 Comments
Buraq | October 7, 2011 10:08 AM | Reply
The 10 minute rule puts the company in charge of the situation. Supremacists don’t like that. Not clocking out to pray is their way of sticking a middle finger in the face of management.

Hertz’s response is firm and fair. Well done Hertz!

PRCS | October 7, 2011 10:37 AM | Reply
A twenty year old who has been driving a shuttle bus since she was 17?

Hmm.

A Muslim woman driving a bus that puts her in the position of mixing with the opposite sex?

Hmm.

“…people from area labor and faith organizations protested [...] waving signs saying, “Respect me, Respect my religion.”"

“But if I can’t pray…”

Yet other Muslims respected the company’s policies; clocking out and in, and Herz apparently did (foolishly)respect those who respected Herz.

And nowhere in the article did anyone ask why they chose not to clock out and in even though others did.

Paul Hoffman | October 7, 2011 10:48 AM | Reply
” They need to pay rent and buy food for their children “.

Then follow the damn rules like everyone else does, and you won’t have a problem.

But that’s not what this is about, is it ?

Here comes some legal jihad in the form of a lawsuit, infidel Hertz.

And even if you win, it’s still gonna cost you..

salah | October 7, 2011 10:54 AM | Reply
Muslims need to pray… at any cost!!!

“Muhammad slept between Aisha and Ali.. but when he got up for the night’s prayer, Aisha and Ali did not get up, they stayed in bed!”

http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/04/threesome-in-islam.html

pdxnag | October 7, 2011 10:56 AM | Reply
What about the obviously apparent discrimination against non-Muslims in the hiring decisions?

wakingwest | October 7, 2011 11:17 AM | Reply
If you are a vegetarian, simply don’t apply for work at Farmer John’s meat packing company. If you are a dude, don’t apply at Hooters. If you are pro-life don’t apply at your local abortion (fetus slaughter) clinic.

If an employer is not already accommodating your individual personal preferences, desires and comforts then don’t apply at their business in the first place.

Employers also have rights. Employees who are unable to perform their responsibilities to fit the employers needs and who require a greater expenditure of money and resources for their particular accommodations for anything except a medical handicap, are not meeting their required obligations should be terminated.

isalm confronts at many levels and intensities. It always holds the same objective, move in, dominate, harass the non-believer, sometimes slay, sometimes sue, but always inflict burdens and damage.

islam is at war with the west,ultimately it desires our domination or destruction.
moderate muslims are as innocuous as moderate nazis, they all equally revere the same creed of supremacy.

ala sux | October 7, 2011 11:44 AM | Reply
They should be happy with that pay because because in Toronto Canada it’s now the MSM story that Muslim Doctors and PHD Engineers or Chemical Engineers are forced to drive a Taxi because their Diplomas or Degrees mean squat in Canada.

Oddly though, I have yet to meet just one of these PHD Muslim cab drives to talk about these subjects that I too have some insight on and would like to chat about as they drive. But no , I just shattered the odds by getting the cabby that needs a GPS or call-in info to get me to a major Intersection in Toronto even when it’s part of the city-grid portion where you aim-n-drive.

I have one question for CAIR , if these drivers had a child aboard that was choking to death as they were about to stop for Prayers….will the Muslims and Allah let the child die to show how powerful and strick Islam is to worship god before man.
BTW
I heard one Muslim say that they go through Ramadan by doing several Prayers in the morning on the days they work, plus they binge-eat before sunrise and it is easier to fast at work.
Why the hell can’t CAIR get it through their heads that if a Muslim Doctor walked off the job while giving birth to a muslim baby and it died, CAIR would have to explain themselves if they stayed mute on the death…or explain why Allah caused the death by forcing the Doctor to do the prayers.

miriam rove replied to comment from Paul Hoffman | October 7, 2011 12:31 PM | Reply
exactly. this has law suit written all over it.
M

sonofwalker | October 7, 2011 1:01 PM | Reply
“Respect me, Respect my religion.”

My sign is way better, though I don’t think I’ll land a job at … anywhere, really:

“Respect me, Respect my flees.”

It’s my religion. Who do I sue for not having a job?

winoceros | October 7, 2011 2:07 PM | Reply
How do you think the Tacoma union leadership will handle this one? The same way they handled the railroad workers issue?

These people work for Hertz. I shudder to think what the union would have in mind for a mad Muslim and a rental car.

Infidel Task Force | October 7, 2011 2:18 PM | Reply
Companies have rules!! Rules that must be obeyed. They are running a business not pandering to one certain group. Islamists don’t understand that. These Somalian muslims believe they can get away with anything they demand. They believe everyone will fold in order to meet their “religious’ needs. And when they don’t get it, they start to cry, whine, yell, protest, complain, trying to get everyone’s sympathy. When you are given an order from your employer, be prepared to follow that order or be escorted to the door.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure there will be more demands to suit them and get them from doing their jobs.

I will also be willing to wager ANYONE out there that these “Oh So Pious” muslims go home at night and drink themselves into a stupor. Perhaps congratulating each other on how they get their employers to capitulate to their every whim.

Loves God | October 7, 2011 2:24 PM | Reply
Just because you did it that way for any amount of time does not mean that it was acceptable or that, at some point, there might not be consequences for continuing to do that which you were warned not to do.

gravenimage | October 7, 2011 2:56 PM | Reply
Hertz has tried to make reasonable accommodations, and they have a business to run that depends on efficiency and reliability. But note the false dichotomy implied by the spokesman below: either the drivers are allowed to break the rules as they see fit, or their families will starve.
…………………………..

What crap. As this line makes clear:

“Muslim workers who clocked out were not suspended.”

it is quite possible for Muslims to follow the tenets of their religion and follow company work rules at the same time.

Efficiency and reliability are especially important for a car rental company.

For these 34 Muslims, it is all about imposing Islamic supremacy and Islamic norms on the West.

More:

“We felt it was reasonable for our Muslim employees who need to pray a couple times during the workday to clock in and clock out,” said Rich Broome, spokesman for Hertz.
…………………………..

Sounds reasonable to me—but then, I’m just a filthy Kaffir…

More:

On Wednesday, a few dozen people from area labor and faith organizations protested on behalf of the workers outside the Hertz counter at the airport, waving signs saying, “Respect me, Respect my religion.”
…………………………..

No one at Hertz has any obligation to “respect” your damn religion, or any of your other beliefs. You can use your break time to grab a cuppa joe, talk about last night’s game or American Idol with your fellow employees, knit, meditate, or practice your religion (as long as that does not include slaughtering goats, raping your 9-year-old “wife”, or waging violent Jihad).

As long as it’s legal and not disruptive, Hertz doesn’t care how you spend your break—”respecting” Islam should have *nothing* to do with this.

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Colonel Mustard did it in the cockpit ...

A Vallejo man holding a Yemeni passport tried to break into the locked cockpit of an American Airlines flight bound for San Francisco. Crew members and passengers were able to subdue him.

“He was walking very fast all the way up to the front,” said Angelina Marty, 35, of San Francisco. “He was screaming something, and the lady in the row across said, ‘That’s Arabic,’ She translated it and said it was roughly, ‘God is Great!’ ”
————————————————————–
The airport police and crack security gurus cannot understand what some Arab yelling Allah Akbar intends. Oops, they left to search a five year old.

FirenzeSage48@gmail.com

DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

Dr. Jasser states that, Islam has no anointed clergy or de facto leadership. There is no “one” Islam. Muslims are not monolithic

It’s great to hear from Dr. Jasser that Islam is not like the Catholic Church with a Pope, creeds and an anointed clergy. It’s good to hear that there is no one leader or group of leaders that can impose creeds upon all Muslims.

But what is there to lead and guide Muslims since as Dr. Jasser says there is no anointed clergy? What about their Bible — the Koran?

Does Dr. Jasser accept all/ or some the literal words of the Koran? Since there are no leaders, is it possible for any individual to re-interpret any/ all/ some the words of the Koran?

Can Dr. Jasser say that he only accepts 10% of the literal words of the Koran and that’s fine and he is still an equally good Muslim as any other Muslim? Sounds like that may be what Dr. Jasser does. Because the Koran has some really strong words about a lot of issues.

Can mosques in Dr. Jasser’s view, read and abide by the Koran in a similar way that Christian churches can read the New Testament and live lives according to the Koran?

Anyone who reads the Koran from start to finish (takes only a few hours) will get an overarching impression about lots off issues: how Muslims are told to deal with the “infidel” (non-Muslims), that the state/ government has a say in everything, that women have very different and much lower rights than men.

So how does Dr. Jasser deal with the actual words of the Koran? How far can anyone re-interpret a basic document and change the words that are stated? The basic document for Islam, the Koran, supports marriage and sex between men and young children. So that is excised in Dr. Jasser’s interpretation of the Koran. What is left in and what has been taken out? Anyone can do what ever they want and be a Muslim? Sounds like it.

See what Dr. Jasser says below in a question and answer session:

Dr, Zuhdi Jasser: questions and answers on his testimony at the King congressional hearings recently held on radicalization of Muslim youth in U.S.

Question # 1. Critics say these hearings on Muslims were McCarthyesque. What do you say?

Dr. Jasser: “In truth, the hearings were a major step in beginning the dialogue necessary to bring real change for American Muslims and real security to the United States. Critics used “McCarthyism” to dodge any responsibility for the hard work of reform necessary to truly counter the radicalization of some Muslims.”

2. Why were you invited to testify?

Dr. Jasser: “Homegrown terror from Muslims is increasing exponentially, and we are failing. I have been willing to frankly and publicly discuss the root cause of political Islam and work against it. I think the committee appreciated that forthrightness and presentation of tangible solutions like the “liberty narrative” that can inoculate Muslim youths against radicalization.”

3. How did American Muslims respond to your testimony?

Dr. Jasser: “There has been an overwhelming positive response from many American Muslims. The American Islamic Leadership Coalition, our alternative to Muslim grievance groups, has now grown exponentially in the past week. On the opposite pole, the hate speech against our work from Islamists nationally and locally has spiked with epithets against me like “Uncle Tom.”

4. Why do you have so many critics on the left?

Dr. Jasser: “I just don’t get it. I’m one of the most outspoken American Muslim voices for women’s rights, pluralism, our First Amendment and the central nature of our Establishment Clause (the separation of mosque and state) toward defeating political Islam. And yet, many in the left have seemed tone deaf to all these traditionally sympathetic ideas to look through the jaundiced eye of partisan politics. They cannot seem to depart from the thought that American Muslims are victims.”

5. What is the most significant point non-Muslims should understand about Islam?

Dr. Jasser: ” Islam has no anointed clergy or de facto leadership. There is no “one” Islam. Muslims are not monolithic. We are a diverse community with diverse interpretations of our scripture, laws and practice. That may be heresy to some imams (teachers) and the power infrastructure of many mosques and Islamist groups. But the future of our beautiful religion and rich history resides in the ability of the vast majority of Muslims to wake up and take on that establishment. American security hangs in the balance.

6. Do you see the relationship between Islam and the West evolving or devolving?

Dr. Jasser: “In my own life, it has evolved as I have obsessed with reform, absorbing into my own Islamic interpretations the ideas of liberty and Americanism. For revivalists, who see themselves bringing Islam to non-Islamic lands, it will continue to devolve into a dangerous struggle between those in denial and those against Islam. I pray American Muslims awaken toward reform and away from revival.”

7. Has the United States taken the right lessons from 9/11?

Dr. Jasser: “Not yet. We have no offense against the ideas that fuel Muslim separatism down that slippery slope of radicalization.

8. What one book do you recommend all Americans read?”

America needs to visit again “The Road to Serfdom” by F.A. Hayek. In Chapter 2, he poignantly quotes (19th-century German poet-thinker Friedrich) Holderlin: “What has always made the state a hell on Earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven.”

The Santa Cruz Sentinel published an opinion piece by Scott Kennedy, of the Center for Non-violence in Santa Cruz, CA.

Mr. Kennedy wrote that it’s wrong to equate Islam with terrorism.

So if a person leaves Islam and converts to Christianity and is threatened with death for apostasy – is that not terrorism? What say you? See below concerning two Afghan men who converted to Christianity:

“Five countries are appealing to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to prevent two Afghan men who converted to Christianity from being sentenced to death for “apostasy” — their decisions to abandon Islam.

Representatives from the United States, Britain, France, the Netherlands and Italy have been in contact with Karzai to ask for release and safe passage for Shoiad Assadullah and Sayed Musa.

Assadullah has been in jail since Oct. 21 after his arrest in Mazar-e-Sharif, and Musa has been detained since his arrest last May.

International Christian Concern’s Middle East Specialist Aidan Clay said Assadullah’s case is urgent.

“The case that concerns us most now is Shoiad Assadullah. He was brought to court in late December and was told he would have one week to recant his faith in Christianityand return to Islam. Otherwise he would be given the death penalty,” Clay explained.

Clay said Assadullah has been denied the right of legalrepresentationand has been charged with apostasy, a crime that Clay points out isn’t in the Afghanistan criminal code.

“The second court date was Jan. 4, but fortunately the attorney general inAfghanistanintervened. We can only assume that was because of foreign pressure in the country,” Clay said.