Muslim workers at a Greeley slaughterhouse on Tuesday said their bosses made no concessions to employee requests for prayer time and face a longer walkout as a result.
Nearly 400 workers, mostly Somalis, walked off the job late Friday at the JBS Swift & Co. packing plant when they were denied prayer time at the end of their daily fast for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
The month-long holiday, which began Sept. 1, requires daily fasts from dawn to sundown.
Employee Ahmed Mohamud said a three-hour meeting with plant managers Tuesday yielded no new concessions to employee requests to break at sundown to take food and water and pray.
“We will not go back to work until this is resolved,” Mohamud said.
About 40 Muslim employees returned to work Tuesday night, he said.
But hundreds more — many threatened with the loss of their jobs if they refused to return — would remain home, Mohamud said.
At the meeting, Swift officials said employees could take a regular 30-minute break at 8 p.m., Mohamud said. Sundown on Tuesday was at 7:19 p.m.
Company officials could not be reached late Tuesday.
