Locked-out workers take message to Crystal Sugar’s doorstep

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4957

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
12 August 2011

MOORHEAD - More than 600 locked out sugar workers and supporters rallied outside the headquarters of American Crystal Sugar Thursday, demanding an end to the lockout that has shaken communities up and down the Red River Valley.


Locked-out sugar workers and supporters march across the bridge between Moorhead, Minn., and Fargo, N.D.

Some 1,300 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco & Grain Millers union were barred from their jobs Aug. 1 after they rejected Crystal Sugar’s contract offer by an overwhelming margin. The company has hired out-of-state workers to run some operations at its facilities in East Grand Forks, Crookston, Moorhead and Chaska, Minn.; Drayton and Hillsboro, N.D., and Mason City, Iowa.


Supporters from other unions joined in the march.

“They’re trying to gut our contract,” said Sie Rawls, who has worked in Drayton for 11 years. The union said the company’s proposal threatens job security by allowing massive outsourcing of jobs and makes major shifts of health care costs onto employees.

Thursday’s events included a gathering outside Crystal Sugar headquarters, a march and demonstration on a bridge spanning the Red River between Moorhead and Fargo, and a rally at a Moorhead park that featured leaders of several labor organizations.

Dedicated workforce
Worker after worker said they feel betrayed by the farmers who own American Crystal Sugar and the executives who manage the company, which is the largest producer of sugar from beets in the United States.

The workers put in long hours on rotating shifts, working on weekends and holidays, giving up time with their families and missing out on activities with their children.

FULL story at link.