The Coin Has Two Faces: Differences That Matter
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Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies Volume 22, Number 1, 2016 THE COIN HAS TWO FACES: DIFFERENCES THAT MATTER Issam Ghazzawi, University of La Verne Marie Palladini, California State University at Dominguez Hills Keywords: Pluralism and culture, diversity, interfaith, meat packing industry, JBS SA, Swift & Company, Mexican workers in the U.S., Somali workers in the U.S., work-time prayer, culture challenges, and religious freedom. The plurality of religious traditions and cultures has come to characterize every part of the world today…Pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity. Diversity can and has meant the creation of religious ghettoes with little traffic between or among them. Today diversity is a given, but pluralism is not a given; it is an achievement. Mere diversity without real encounter and relationship will yield increasing tensions in our societies…Pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference… Pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments…is based on dialogue… Diana L. Eck (2006, paras. 1-4) Professor of Comparative Religions and Indian studies, Harvard University As companies do more and more business around the world. Diversity isn’t simply a matter of doing what is fair or good public relations. It’s a business imperative. Carol Heimowitz (2005, p. R1) The Wall Street Journal CASE DESCRIPTION A diverse workforce poses unique challenges to organizations. While employees with different backgrounds bring a gamut of cultural values to the workplace, conflicts, misunderstandings, and stress may increase. Embracing employees’ differences can be a major challenge to organizations. The core pedagogical objective of this decision case research is to help provide an applied, hands-on format for students to increase their understanding and appreciation of the ethnic diversity and beliefs of others. It also advocates organizational pluralism, where employees feel they are fully integrated rather than isolated and ignored. 61 Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies Volume 22, Number 1, 2016 CASE SYNOPSIS In 1992 seven year old Hussain Abdullah Osman, his parents and four siblings left their war-torn homeland Somalia, to live in a refugee camp in Kenya. In early 2007, Hussain resettled with his family in Grand Island, Nebraska, to work for a meat packing company, JBS SA. JBS hired Hussain soon after the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) raided its plant and several other meat packing plants in different states. ICE agents arrested hundreds of undocumented Latino immigrants who were working there illegally. The aforementioned raid resulted in the deportation of many workers and caused other undocumented workers, not present during the raid, to leave town. Management of the JBS Grand Island plant moved quickly and recruited Somali refugees who resided legally in the U.S. from locations such as Minneapolis, MN and Columbus, OH to work at its meat packing plant. In September 2008, Muslim workers (mostly Somalis) at the JBS SA plant in Nebraska walked out to demand time for prayer and dinner during their holy month of Ramadan. The union representatives and company’s management agreed to accommodate a prayer time at sunset by moving a scheduled break up by 15 minutes. However, the Latino immigrant workers led counter-protests and walked out the next day complaining that the Muslims were being favored. After two days of tension and work disruption, the company reversed its course regarding the break time and fired Somali workers and others who walked out in protest. The United Food and Commercial Workers UFCW, Local 22, filed a grievance and encouraged fired workers to return and talk to union representatives. Many of the new Somali workers were observant Muslims who wanted to practice the traditional religious prayer schedule. Despite a different outward appearance, the objections by the non-Muslim workers and managers at the plant were not religious based, but were largely due to economic reasons. In fact, the recruitment and hiring of Somali refugees at JBS solved the problem of hiring undocumented immigrants and having to risk the possibility of additional ICE raids. The Somalis were good workers, but the observation of Ramadan, and its requisite prayer breaks caused consternation between the Somalis and the Latino workers at the plant; that created an obvious division in the plant. The real trouble between the Latino workers and the Somali workers was not based on differing religious beliefs as much as it was based on increased workloads created by the Somalis leaving the line to pray. It was the last Monday of September, 2008 and both management and the United Food and Commercial Workers Representatives at JBS, Grand Island were concerned about the tensions at the plant and wanted to find a good solution that would not only accommodate the Somali workers but also help build a sustainable diversity plan, while effectively managing its operations. AN INTRODUCTION It was 1992 and one of those scorching summer days where a hot day just got hotter when Hussain Abdullah Osman, age seven, left his war-torn homeland, Somalia, with his parents and four siblings to live in a refugee camp in Kenya. Fourteen years later, he resettled with his family in Grand Island, Nebraska, a central Nebraska town of 43,000 people to work for a meat packing company, JBS SA. (Also known as Swift & Company, its original name). 62 Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies Volume 22, Number 1, 2016 Thousands of miles away, in 2004, Jose Rodriguez, twenty-two years old, escaped his home town of Nuevo Laredo, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and crossed the Mexico-US border via the Rio Grande, to move to Laredo, Texas. Jose left Mexico to escape drug wars carried out by the Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations vying for control of the lucrative drug trafficking routes that resulted in the killing of thousands of people (OSAC, 2013). He also came to the US to escape poverty and to find a job opportunity that might help provide for his elderly parents and younger siblings. Jose entered the US illegally in October 2004 and finally resettled in Grand Island, Nebraska where one of his distant cousins lived and worked for JBS SA’s meat packing plant. A couple of days later, Jose was hired by JBS to work on the slaughter line. Exhibit 1 An Image of Grand Island’s Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_Island_%28Nebraska%29_cathedral_from_N.JPG As a result of his employment at JBS, Jose established himself as part of the Latino community in Grand Island, enjoyed a better lifestyle, and was able to transfer some money to aid his family in Mexico. Due to some unfortunate luck, he was arrested and deported after a United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raid on the plant in December 2006. The ICE raid caused an immediate need for documented workers at JBS providing the aforementioned opportunity for Hussain to work there on the slaughter line. JBS SA: COMPANY PROFILE The company was founded in 1855 by 16-year-old Gustavus Franklin Swift in West Sandwich (now Sagamore), Massachusetts. He began his career at the age of 14, when he went to work for an older brother who owned a butcher shop (Robinson Library, 2014; Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). The young Swift was able to start his own meat business when his father gave him $20. He used $19 to purchase a heifer, which he then butchered and sold out of his father's wagon. At a later time, he was able to buy another heifer and repeated the process (Robinson Library, 2014). 63 Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies Volume 22, Number 1, 2016 By working long hours and exhibiting great skills in judging the value of the cattle, the younger Swift had made enough money to open his own butcher shop in Eastham, Massachusetts in 1859. He then hired another brother to run it and opened a second store in Barnstable, Massachusetts (Robinson Library, 2014). The company was incorporated as Swift & Company in Chicago in 1875 after it expanded to Brighton, Massachusetts; Albany and Buffalo, New York. Swift believed that there were more cattle to choose from in Chicago (Robinson Library, 2014; Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). Swift also believed that meatpacking would be more profitable than meat selling, especially if he could ship fresh meat from Chicago to the east coast population center rather than ship live cattle that would be slaughtered upon arrival. He acted accordingly and hired an engineer to design a refrigerated railroad cart (Robinson Library, 2014; Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). When the late Gustavus Swift died in Chicago in 1903, the company he founded remained a family owned business until it was bought by ConAgra Foods in 1988 (Robinson Library, 2014).i However, in 2002, Swift & Company was purchased by Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, a private equity group when ConAgra divested its fresh beef and pork processing business (Refrigerated Transporter, 2014). Finally, Swift & Company was acquired again in 2007 by the Brazilian meat giant, JBS S.A., for $225 million and assumed its heavy debt load, estimated at more than $1 billion (Hoovers.com, 2014). THE MEAT, BEEF, AND THE POULTRY PROCESSING INDUSTRY IN THE US: INDUSTRY PROFILE Companies in this industry slaughtered animals, processed the carcasses and packaged the meat into products and by-products. Additionally, companies also purified and refined animal fat, bones and meat scraps. Products were sold to meat and grocery wholesalers, retail traders, other food manufacturers, renderers, and retail traders (IBIS, 2014; First Research, 2014). The industry revolutionary breeding processes helped develop meat animals with lower fat content, faster weight gain, and much greater quality.