Union members again reject American Crystal Sugar offer
Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 7:13 pm
- 5 Comments
Source: Gfpeck, Flickr
Union members who have been locked out from American Crystal Sugar plants since the start of August rejected the company’s most recent offer in a vote Tuesday.
Ninety percent of voting union workers rejected the deal, according to the union, with 92 percent of all union members voting.
“If company executives are serious about getting us back to work, they should return to the negotiating table immediately with real compromises, not just repackaged versions of a contract that has now been rejected twice,” said Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union local 167G President John Riskey. “It’s time for a contract that benefits workers, the company, growers, and the community.”’
The workers in three states have been locked out since they rejected a contract at the end of July, partly due to concerns about the cost of a new health care plan and provisions that would have allowed the company to use more subcontractors.
“Today our members sent a loud and clear message to American Crystal Executives,” said Riskey. “We want to work, but we will not accept a contract that puts our jobs and the entire community at risk.”
The only two previous negotiations were requested by a federal mediator. There are no negotiations scheduled.
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.
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Comment posted November 1, 2011 @ 11:11 pm
Wow! In todays economy any person should be glad to have a job at all. These people have been offered a great contract with a very substantial compensation offer as well as increased retirement contributions and it still wasn’t enough. Yes they were asked to pay $70 a month for health care but with millions of Americans having no health insurance at all it is really hard to feel sorry for these people who have elected not to work. So many people in our country have lost their jobs, cars, homes and life savings yet the union employees at American Crystal Sugar have the nerve to say that what they were offered isn’t enough. I think that is disgusting. They should be ashamed of themselves. How dare they ask for public support and sympathy?
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 10:13 am
Union workers do not like contract language that lets the company promote based on merit instead of senority. It really does not matter what percentage of the workers think this is a bad contract. Do you want to work or don’t you? How much have you made on the picket line? What are you going to need in a contract now to make up for 3+ months of lost wages and benefits? Do you really tell your family – sorry, can’t go back to work. This contract is bad for the community. You’ve got no sympathy here.
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Comment posted November 4, 2011 @ 10:41 pm
@ Dick-not-well-concealed obscenity.
You don’t even have the guts to be courteous about your own posting name, one found at porn sites. Why should anyone pay any attention to what you have to say? As for the merits of the dispute, it is clear you are more than simply ignorant. You are both ignorant and deliberately uninformed. Not only that, you demonstrate that you are abjectly fearful of management. Why is that?
The ACS management values its employees so little, it forced them off the job. And you think it’s the employees’ fault. Wow.
All ACS’s lockout did was to drive the employees to anger and solidarity. Plus, as an offensive lockout, it may have gotten itself into a violation of the Labor Act. If so, the contract issues will get forgotten as ACS tries to avoid a huge backpay and bad faith bargaining finding.
Maybe you should get hired by ACS and get your free money from the company’s stupidity.
And Corey, as for your concept of picket pay, get real. That only keeps the wolf away from the door; and the lost wages aren’t due to the employees’ unreasonableness, it’s due to the company’s niggardly and abusive treatment of its team members. Oh wait…the company doesn’t see its staff as members of a team; it sees them as serfs from the 19th century.
Remember Lincoln’s words: “Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits…”
So you might want to re-think ACS’s greedy point of view. ACS certainly should.
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