Tension in the workplace

This is a timeline of recent religious disputes involving Somalis in Minnesota and their employers:

November 2005: Canadian electronics manufacturer Celestica fires or suspends 16 workers at its Arden Hills plant for taking unauthorized breaks to pray. A class action lawsuit is pending.

October 2006: Nine Somali immigrant employees at Gold'n Plump's poultry processing plant in Cold Spring allege in a federal lawsuit that the company did not permit them short breaks during the day. The suit accuses supervisors of following workers into restrooms to be sure they weren't praying.

March 2007: Target Corp. shifts some Muslim cashiers to other jobs in its Twin Cities stores, after they refuse to ring up pork products.

April 2007: Some Somali taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport attract national attention for refusing to ferry alcohol and dogs on religious grounds. The Metropolitan Airports Commission threatens to suspend drivers who refuse riders.

September 2007: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission files a suit alleging that the St. Cloud office of Kelly Services, a staffing agency, discriminated against a Somali woman by refusing her a job at a printing press because she declined to remove her head scarf.