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Protestors
Picket Macy's, Call For Re-Hiring Two Muslim Women
By
Ayub Khan, IOL Correspondent
SANTA
CLARA, California, Feb.27 (IslamOnline) - The Coalition to Re-hire Alia
(Atawneh) and Hiam (Yassine), two Muslim women fired from Macy's department
store in Santa Clara's Valley Fair mall soon after Sept.11, demands their
immediate re-hiring, according to a Macy’s statement received Tuesday.
Last
Sunday, close to 175 people representing multiple races, ethnicities, religions
and groups, held a noisy three hour protest outside the store shouting slogans
like "M-A-C-Y-S, you’re racist, just confess."
The
Coalition charges that Atawneh and Yassine, both of whom are Palestinian Muslim
immigrants, were fired because of their religious and cultural backgrounds.
Atawneh,
29, a clerk at Macy's, was fired shortly after being berated by a customer who
told her that she had no right to work in the United States. She said that when
she asked the customer for an explanation, he complained to the manager.
Two
co-workers also complained to managers about Atawneh, claiming she said America
"deserved" the attacks, a statement Atawneh said she never said and
does not believe.
Macy's,
however, defended the firing claiming that Atawneh's comments were disruptive. A
Macy's press release obtained by IslamOnline reads:
"As
a company, we cannot and will not condone offensive, rude, provocative or
disruptive comments in the workplace. After receiving more than one report that
an employee made such remarks about the September 11th attacks, that employee
was terminated."
Fadi
Saba, of Arab-American Caucus and a coalition member organization, told
IslamOnline, "All corporations that fire will go into denial. This has been
Macy's trend.
“It
is true that Alia Atawneh did make comments on 9/11, but that is when two of her
co-workers [who knew she is Palestinian] asked why Palestinians in Nablus [in
Occupied Palestine] celebrated - and Alia only tried to explain [not
opine]."
The
other employee, Yassine, 39, was fired because she gave a customer a discount on
a handbag without a manager's approval.
Yassine
does not dispute she gave the discount, but contends that what she did is common
among fellow Macy’s salespeople.
Yassine,
who wears hijab (Islamic headcovering) and is a U.S. citizen, said she has
received many awards for her sales work since she started working at Macy's in
1997. She says she was fired because her co-workers were uncomfortable having
her around.
The
Macy's statement said that Yassine's firing was solely based on violating a
company policy and that it had nothing to do with discrimination.
"The
accusations that two recent employee terminations were based on discrimination
are completely false. The two cases are unrelated; each was based on our
conclusion that an employee violated company policies which apply to all
employees," the statement read.
Meanwhile,
the Coalition to Rehire Alia and Hiam, formed in association with Silicon Valley
De.Bug, a San Jose-based activist group for temporary and low-wage workers and
several other groups, said that it would continue to hold protests until justice
is done.
It
is demanding Macy's to re-hire the two women, compensate them for redress, and
apologize to them and to the Arab community.
The
coalition is also trying to unionize all clerical workers at Macy's and FDS
(Federated Department Stores), which owns Macy's and several other department
stores.
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