A new Amazon sorting facility in Woodbury, Minnesota, is taking its employees\u2019 religious needs seriously, adding new \u201cablution stations\u201d for ritual hand and foot washing and three rooms that people of any faith may use for prayer or meditation.<\/p>\n
The 550,000-square-foot facility, which opened this month, employs about 300 Somalis and Somali Americans, many of them refugees from the generation-long civil war in the east African nation. Minnesota is home to as many as 80,000 Somali immigrants, more than half of those living in the United States. More than 99% of Somalians are Muslim.<\/p>\n
A stop for packages moving between Amazon warehouses and their shipping destinations, the Woodbury center includes signs in Somali as well as translation services. Other accommodations for all employees include lactation rooms for nursing mothers and soundproof booths for phone calls.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n A new Amazon site in Minnesota has taken steps to welcome Muslim employees, but a local leader says Amazon still has a way to go. \u201cThey are not trend leaders. They are catching up,\u201d said @Jaylanihussein<\/a> of @CAIRMN<\/a>. https:\/\/t.co\/s2xRyIrEjx<\/a><\/p>\n — Religion News Service (@RNS) October 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n