Company refuses to negotiate with locked out sugar workers ... again

American Crystal Sugar Company refused once again on Monday to negotiate with the 1,300 workers who have been locked out from their jobs for nearly six months.

Members Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) met with a federal mediator and representatives of American Crystal Sugar Company in a formal negotiation session. Once again the company was unwilling to consider any of the workers’ proposals, according to a press release from BCTGM.

“We are disappointed, but no longer surprised, at the company’s refusal to negotiate,” said Dan Kressin, a member of the union bargaining committee and an eight-year employee of the Crookston, MN, plant. “We made significant proposals that we believe address their issues. They did not bring a single new proposal to the table.”

Workers say management’s decision to lock them out and refusal to engage in constructive bargaining are harming the Crystal Sugar brand and endangering the sugar provisions in the Farm Bill in Congress.

“There is clear evidence that replacement workers are not producing the same amount or the same quality product that we have produced in the past,” said Ross Perrin, who has worked at the Moorhead, MN, plant for 31 years.  “How long before customers begin to pull their business if quality continues to suffer?” he asked.

Locked out workers have witnessed greater-than-normal amounts of non-saleable sugar, or re-melt, piled up outside warehouses in Grand Forks and Hillsboro. Overproduction of re-melt strongly suggests that replacement workers are not processing beets properly or efficiently.

Workers say they want the company to end the lockout and reach a fair contract that is good for workers, the company and their communities. Until then, they say they will take their message to customers, who need to know that the quality of Crystal Sugar is suffering because of the lockout. In addition, workers will continue to communicate with members of Congress about Crystal Sugar’s attempts to gut good middle-class jobs in the Red River Valley.

“We think that urban legislators whose votes will be necessary to pass the sugar program and the Farm Bill should know that Crystal Sugar is engaging in anti-worker tactics that undermine labor standards in an industry that, until now, has provided good middle-class jobs to thousands of workers,” said Roger Delage, president of BCTGM Local 267G. “Will members of Congress who support labor want to support a program that props up companies willing to undermine workers’ rights in an effort to line executives’ pockets?”

There are at least four bills currently before Congress that would end the sugar program. In the past, workers and management have joined forces to advocate for the program with members of Congress. That traditional cooperation has dissolved in the wake of the lockout.

American Crystal Sugar has processing plants in East Grand Forks, Crookston, and Moorhead, Minn.; Hillsboro and Drayton, N.D.; and packaging and transportation sites in Chaska, Minn. and Mason City, Iowa. Workers at these facilities are represented by BCTGM Locals 167G (Grand Forks, N.D.), 265G (Chaska), 267G (Crookston), 269G (Mason City) and 372G (Hillsboro, N.D.).