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All Work and No Pray

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Nevertheless, Ford's offer to switch El-Amin to a night shift may be enough to satisfy the law's requirements. "The law is very clear-cut that accommodations must be made, but it is less clear on what that accommodation should be," says Joshua Salaam of CAIR. "It could be something as outrageous as 'We can move you to Alaska and you can work on the night shift.' That would be enough to satisfy the law."

Lynn Bruner, director of the EEOC, says the relevant legal issue may boil down to just how much of a hardship it is for the employer to accommodate an employee's request for religious services. "The course of action is different based on each type of employer and the impact it would have on the whole operation," Bruner says. "We would take into account size and finances and the number of employees. It really is a case-by-case basis."

In this case, says Jerry Foster, president of the United Auto Workers' Local 325, the accommodation the plant offered isn't fair. "The plant is really penalizing the man because he wants to go on days and practice his faith," says Foster. "Basically he is standing on the right side of the government because it has given him the right to practice his faith, as well as the union's side because it is written in the contract."

Maybe so, but UAW plant chairman Willis Courtoise wouldn't know. Courtoise, an avid deer hunter, is the union representative charged with defending El-Amin before his superiors. Nevertheless, Courtoise admits, "I have not read in the contract about religious accommodations because I have never looked for it."

Courtoise says he wishes El-Amin well in his quest to pray at the mosque on Fridays but adds with a shrug, "It is up to Ford, because they sign the checks."

As for days off to hunt, Courtoise bristles at the notion that they will ever end. "We've been doing that for years, and we are going to keep doing it," he says, "I don't see anybody complaining about it. This conversation is over."

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