News

February 29, 2012 | American Crystal Sugar’s locked-out workers warn Nestle about product safety | On the last day of the Journey for Justice, locked-out workers dropped in on a quality assurance lab maintained by Nestle, one of American Crystal Sugar’s largest corporate customers, in Dublin, Ohio... Read more...

January 10, 2012 | Locked Out American Crystal Sugar Workers Meet with Senator Al Franken | Senator Al Franken met for more than an hour with about one hundred workers who have been locked out of their jobs by American Crystal Sugar Company since August 1, 2011...Read More...

December 5, 2011 | Locked out Workers Speak Out on the Ed Show | Click here to watch the clip from msnbc.com.

December 5, 2011 | Minnesota Governor Pledges to Help End the American Crystal Lockout | Yesterday in Moorhead, Minn., Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton met with an American Crystal Sugar Company executive and listened to locked out workers stories during a Saturday visit. Click here to read more, watch the video and read a letter from the Governer to CEO Dave Berg.

December 1, 2011 | Locked Out Crystal Sugar Workers Offer Real Story of Corporate Greed at ACSC Joint Annual Meeting | Union members questioned the company’s contention that it cannot afford the union contract, pointing out that the last three years have been profitable for ACSC, and directors have rewarded top executives handsomely...Read More...

November 30, 2011 | Union Prayer Vigil (valleynewslive.com)

 

Novmeber 30, 2011 | Locked out ACS Workers Hold Prayer Vigil | Gayln Olson – Locked Out Union Worker: “We are still struggling to keep our lives together but as long as our union brothers and sisters stick together, we will be just fine. Let us pray to get back to work soon with a fair contract.” Read more and watch the video...

November 30, 2011 | In Recording, American Crystal Sugar President Likens Union Workers to Cancerous Tumor | In a meeting of company shareholders, Dave Berg likened the workers to a 21-pound cancerous tumor. According to an audio recording of the meeting, Berg told the story of a sick friend who was diagnosed with cancer and had a massive tumor removed. “That’s a scary deal. He was sick for a long time,” said Berg. “We can't let a labor contract make us sick forever and ever and ever. We have to treat the disease and that’s what we’re doing here." Read More...

November 13, 2011 | Tony St. Michel, Dilworth, Minn., letter: Locked-out veterans ponder Veterans Day | To commemorate Veterans Day, the Northern Plains United Labor Council held an event to celebrate union members’ participation in the military. Our members up and down the Red River Valley have faithfully served their country. From Korea to Vietnam to the Gulf War to Afghanistan, our members have answered the call to duty...Read More...

November 10, 2011 | Locked-out ND workers press for jobless benefits | Workers from American Crystal Sugar Co. and their backers rallied at the state Capitol on Wednesday, demanding that lawmakers support allowing the company's locked-out North Dakota employees to collect unemployment benefits...Read More...

November 4, 2011 | Will you call United Way today? | We've learned that American Crystal Sugar's CEO Dave Berg is trustee and chair-elect of Cass-Clay County's United Way. It is a contradiction that Dave Berg holds this position because he cares about the community yet he is deliberately causing harm to the community by locking out workers...Read more...

November 3, 2011 | BCTGM Welcomes Politicians’ Efforts to Resume Negotiations | “We’re happy the elected leaders who represent the Red River Valley share our desire that American Crystal Sugar executives join us at the negotiating table," said BCTGM Local 167G President John Riskey. “We have always been and continue to be ready to negotiate in good faith on a contract that benefits workers, the company, growers, and the community..." Read More...

November 1, 2011 | BCTGM Members Overwhelmingly Reject American Crystal Contract Offer | “Today our members sent a loud and clear message to American Crystal Executives,” said BCTGM Local 167G President John Riskey. “We want to work, but we will not accept a contract that puts our jobs and the entire community at risk...” Read more...

October 21, 2011 | Shar Knutson, St. Paul, letter: Lockout puts sugar program in jeopardy | The federal government's sugar program has created a fair market for Red River Valley sugar beet growers to earn a living, and it created good-paying jobs in the production facilities for many decades. Now a new agricultural bill is threatening to eliminate the program entirely...Read more...

September 12, 2011 | American Crystal loses experience, dependability without union workers | Dear Crystal sugar beet growers: Last year, if asked what a lock-out was, I’d have said “Never heard of it.” Today, I am locked out of American Crystal Sugar Co. with about 1,300 others. It’s been more than a month. Wham. I don’t get it. Why would you pay more money to less- qualified people, unless you want to break the union? Read More...

September 9, 2011, For Immediate Release | Fires break out in East Grand Forks and Drayton American Crystal Sugar Plants | "When you put poorly trained replacement workers into these facilities, preventable accidents can and will happen. That is exactly what happened last night," said Local 167G President John Riskey...Read more...

September 1, 2011, Minnesota State Fed | Rally targets company supplying replacement workers in sugar industry lockout | Thursday began the second month of a lockout of 1,300 union workers by American Crystal Sugar, which has contracted with Minnetonka-based Strom Engineering to supply replacement workers. Union members marked the day with a rally outside Strom’s headquarters...Read more...

September 1, 2011, BCTGM Local 22 | Supporters of Locked Out BCTGM Sugar Workers Rally on September 1 | On September 1, Labor Supporters of locked out BCTGM members employed in the sugar industry rallied in front of Strom Inc. in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Strom is the firm which hired all of the scab labor currently employed by American Crystal Sugar...Read More...

August 25, 2011, For Immediate Release | Statement from BCTGM Local 167G President John Riskey | "For the first time in four weeks, representatives from American Crystal Sugar Company finally agreed to meet with BCTGM union negotiators..." Read More...

August 24, 2011, Inforum | American Crystal’s lockout part of a bad-faith strategy | The American Crystal Sugar lockout that is still going on is nothing less than a premeditated assignation of 1,300 employees, their jobs, families and future by the company...Read More...

August 11, 2011, Workday Minnesota | Faces of the Lockout | Going without a paycheck – and essentials like health insurance – are taking a toll on the 1,300 families hit by the American Crystal Sugar lockout. (Workday Minnesota)

‘Kids need food’ Brady Peck held a sign that any parent can relate to: “Kids need food.” The single father of two boys has worked for American Crystal for five years. His sons, age seven and 11, “can eat a lot,” he noted. “It’s kind of hard to feed them when you’re not working.” While the lockout is difficult, workers’ lives would be worse if they had ratified the company’s last offer, which was an attack on the middle class, Peck said. “We’re losing our rights every day.” Read full Workday Minnesota article here.

 

August 11, 2011, Workday Minnesota | Locked Out BCTGM Members Take Message to the Streets. More than 600 locked out sugar workers and supporters rallied outside the headquarters of American Crystal Sugar Thursday, demanding an end to the lockout. Some 1,300 members of BCTGM were locked out of their jobs on 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. Read full Workday Minnesota article here. View photos of the march here. (Right: Locked-out sugar workers and supporters march across the bridge between Moorhead, Minn., and Fargo, N.D.)

 

August 5, 2011, Inforum | As the community already knows, 1,300 Red River Valley residents employed by American Crystal Sugar Co. have been forced off the job against our will. We are your neighbors. We go to church with you. We spend money at local businesses. We raise our families here because the Red River Valley is a great place to live and work...Read the rest of this article by Local 167G President John Riskey...

August 3, 2011, Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal | The Teamsters Union says it will support locked-out workers at American Crystal Sugar Co. by not making deliveries to the Moorhead-based company...Read more...

The Power of Sugar Beets Valley News Live Click here to watch the video...

August 1, 2011, Workday Minnesota | Some 1,300 American Crystal Sugar workers in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa have been locked out after voting overwhelmingly to reject the company's final offer...Read More...

August 1, 2011, AFL-CIO | American Crystal Sugar Co. employees were locked out in three states yesterday after the workers, members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 167G, rejected the company’s final offer by a nine-to-one margin...Read More...

August 1, 2011, Associated Press | 1,300 workers locked out at American Crystal Sugar Replacement workers were on the job at seven American Crystal Sugar plants and some employees were picketing outside them Monday, after about 1,300 union members were locked out of facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa...Read More...