Hertz suspends Muslim shuttle drivers

Visit our News page Hertz suspends Muslim shuttle drivers Once again we witness a group of Muslims demanding special accommodations not afforded to anyone else. In the MSNBC story below (highlights added), we read that Hertz suspended Muslim shuttle drivers who took time off work to pray but did not clock out when doing so. (Not all Muslim shuttle drivers refused to clock out and those who did clock out were not suspended.) Clocking out is a perfectly reasonable requirement—in spite of what a union official said. The union official said requiring the Muslim drivers to clock out to pray “is like having workers clock in and out for smoke breaks or bathroom breaks.” Uh, no it isn’t. In case you missed it, here’s another example of Muslims demanding special treatment. This time, it was at a New York theme park in August, where Muslim women were told that safety rules required they not wear headscarves on certain rides. Again, sounds perfectly reasonable to us—but not to some of the Muslim women. A brawl erupted. Some foolishly and incorrectly called this safety requirement further evidence of “Islamophobia.” Would those people be willing to pay the legal costs incurred by the park if a Muslim woman got strangled by her headscarf on a ride and then her family sued the park for not protecting her safety? Of course they wouldn’t. A central element of radical Islam is an ideologically-based supremacist mindset that demands that societies accommodate them, rather than their assimilating into their host societies. This also reflects sharia law’s requirement that human laws must always be subordinate to Islamic law. Muslim drivers suspended over praying time The rental car company has suspended 34 drivers in Seattle, Wash., for praying on the job without clocking out. By Al Olson http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/07/8206772-muslim-drivers-suspended-over-praying-time?GT1=43001 More than 30 Seattle-area Hertz shuttle drivers are without work in a clash over Muslim prayer, the Seattle Times reported Friday. Hertz has "suspended indefinitely" 33 drivers — all of them observant Muslims who work out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Hertz contends the drivers are taking prayer breaks without clocking out first. According to the Seattle Times: 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 suspended workers had not complied. The suspended drivers are members of Teamsters Local 117, which is attempting to get the workers back in their shuttle vans. “The company clearly is violating the intent of the contract and the actual language of the contract,” said Tracey A. Thompson, secretary-treasurer of Local 117. “This is like having workers clock in and out for smoke breaks or bathroom breaks.” Thompson, who was at the negotiating table in the last round of contact talks, said that this issue was discussed at length by both sides and they had a clear understanding – and contract language – that protected the workers from punishment for prayer breaks. Rich Broome, a spokesman for Hertz, told msnbc.com that Muslim drivers who clocked out to pray were not suspended and that the company was trying to be fair to all workers. In the meantime, the suspended workers have not been told when – or if – they will be able to return to their jobs. Read the full story in the Seattle Times ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACT for America P.O. 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