Another fire at American Crystal Sugar plant staffed by replacement workers

Source: Gfpeck, Flickr

Emergency vehicles responded to yet another fire Thursday at an American Crystal Sugar plant in Moorhead where union workers have been locked out since Aug. 1.

Union members like Ross Perrinn gathered around the plant as smoke and steam billowed out of the building, according to reports from Valley News Live.

“It’s kind of strange. Six fires out of the valley and the equipment is being monitored by people running it,” Perrinn told Valley News Live. ”They’ll write it off as a common occurrence. Any situation you know that you have like this can turn into a devastating event. Lucky nobody got hurt.”

Other fires at American Crystal Sugar plants in Minnesota and North Dakota were reported in early September, with Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union local President John Riskey then saying that “when you put poorly trained replacement workers into these facilities, preventable accidents can and will happen.”

The replacement workers at American Crystal Sugar plants are provided by Minnetonka’s Strom Engineering, which specializes in supporting company labor actions like lockouts and strikes.

Strom Engineering doesn’t have a sparkling safety history, according to earlier Minnesota Independent reporting. In 2006, a Strom replacement worker was killed in an accident in an Alaska AK Steel factory. OSHA initially cited AK Steel for a serious violation of safety in the accident. During that same lockout, three other replacement workers were injured in an explosion. Former Strom workers also alleged unsafe conditions in a recent Star Tribune article.

Union members were locked out by American Crystal Sugar after they overwhelmingly rejected a contract proposal at the end of July. Although the union was dissatisfied with an offer made by the company during this week’s negotiations with a federal mediator, they’ve agreed to bring the proposal to a vote by Nov. 1.

The lockout affects 1,300 union workers at facilities in Moorhead, East Grand Forks, Crookston, and Chaska, Minn.; Hillsboro and Drayton, N.D.; and Mason City, Iowa.