Crystal workers, supporters rally at N.D. Capitol
November 9, 2011 at 6:06 am in Grand Forks Herald
About 150 locked-out American Crystal Sugar workers and supporters rallied in the North Dakota Capitol’s Great Hall today, urging legislators meeting in special session to bring them into the state’s unemployment insurance program. Continue Reading
Here’s an idea – ACCEPT WHAT THEY ARE OFFERING and then you can go back to work!
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“Rep. Jon Nelson, R-Rugby … said he has sympathy for the families involved but doesn’t think the committee should make a decision without more information … Rep. Bob Skarphol, R-Tioga, said he also understands the urgency of the situation facing the workers, but he also wanted more information.”
There is no pressing need for information. Worker’s Compensation insurance is for people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. People who abandon their jobs, or are fired do not qualify. Being locked out after turning down a reasonable offer, not once but twice, is abandonment.
‘Nuff Said.
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***Gary Granzotto, president of the state AFL-CIO, said the locked-out workers “negotiated in good faith to bring resolution, to bring in a new contract…***
I guess everything we’ve read is inaccurate then huh, Granzotto? To lots of other folks, “negotiating in good faith” includes…ummm….negotiating. It doesn’t mean rubber-stamping “Nope. try again” on everything you’ve been presented with. It’s been mentioned plenty of times already, but it’s worth mentioning again that negotiating in good faith also DOES NOT mean proposing to circumnavigate the accepted negotiating avenues when things aren’t going your way.
What Granzotto, (and other union reps), count on, is that since folks around here have relatives, neighbors, and friends that are union employees, many of us only reply to their nonsense on blogs such as this. If lots of us didn’t have concerns about burning bridges, we’d be more willing to step up and challenge the “leadership” publicly.
Granzotto’s brand of logic, clear thinking, and objectivity would be highly entertaining to observe under, say….the warm stage lighting of an auditorium during a public debate with someone pulled in off of the street. Attempts to swerve off-topic, or recite memorized rhetoric straight out of the union playbook would be stopped in their tracks by the debate moderator….resulting in Granzotto having to speak off the cuff while responding to some simple questions.
I’d buy a ticket.
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The union pays $100 dollars to workers to picket per week…Guess they wouldn’t have any picketers without it
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They could pay homeless people to picket like a Washington, D.C. carpenters’ union did.
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I was told by a striking/locked-out person that their union pays out $100/week, or $200/week if they picket. What does their leadership make? Pay dues for years, then when you need some help, the union gives out a pittance? Shame on them…
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They need to save their money for large inflatable rats, rope, stuffed monkeys, Confederate flags, and the FedEx/Kinkos bill for the pamphlets that can be found at your local grocery stores. Well, in the trash after I get there.
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Granzotto, Knutson, Risky and Froemke are wasting the union workers dollars with all this negative propaganda. Picketing, negative leaflets, threats to politicians, shareholders and management. Forming phone blitzes to the united way to remove Dave berg from the board of trustees.
Absolutely nothing productive. Use those dollars to support your voluntarily unemployed workers! Yes you are voluntarily unemployed.
The public is clearly seeing that the union is just as guilty of corporate greed as those they accuse.
Before you union people take credit for the success of my job you can forget it. I thank Florence Nightengale and our Brothers and Sisters who fought for our freedom!
Your union people on these comment sections are “ratting” the reps out as to how they were forced to vote no. Granzotto et al must be getting additional dollars for all their so called hard work. The public is tiring of the overpaid union reps negative tactics while their followers
Starve. They should be using their time to negotiate or it’s time to move out of the RRV.
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Does anyone think it is ironic that right after the article on Union employees going to the capitol to demand unemployment ~~~the next article was Grand Forks; more jobs than people to fill them…legislatures please consider this before giving in to their demands….and then union employees will say they don’t pay enough…beats unemployment and welfare…go and see what the real world offers you
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Bloggers please help me out here; I am calling for a phone blitz on november 15th …Call you senators and representatives and tell them how you feel about Crystal employees recieving unemployment
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Winston why not post your address and phone number beings you are from payed pro union serial blogger from Virginia.
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I too am in the airline business and have connections to Grand Forks. My position, of authority, doesn’t quite give me the flexibility of Paul Cline. And unlike Paul Cline, I’m not writing a string of continuous letters to the Grand Forks Herald. That sets us apart. While I might add my comments, here, on these posts, I’m not trying to rub salt in anybody’s wounds.
I am glad to get the feeling that we must not be limited to living in Grand Forks in order to have our opinions valued. Good for the locals to be that open minded.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Winston, if you don’t agree with Paul Cline’s message in his letter to the Herald, please write one of your own.
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Winston; if you go back to the first blogs, they were not anti union
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Winston. I have made no secret of my name or where I live. In fact on numerous occasions during this debate I have referred you and others to the various editorials the Harold has published (under my name) since this labor action began. Just to clarify: I have never pretended to live in GF. I used to, and my children are still there which is why I take such an interest in local happenings. I have also never claimed to be anything other than male. Most people read nurse and assume I am female. I don’t ever bother to address it anymore because the next question or suspicion is I’m gay (I have 4 biological and 3 step kids but most people who think along those lines are like Always Correct on the Sioux nickname boards — their minds are already made up so it is useless to try and change them).
I entered into this discussion on political and theological grounds. My very first blog post stated unequivocally that I felt the ACS employees were fools for trying a labor action in this economy. As these things often do the conversation morphed into the broader categories of worker’s rights and are worker’s entitled to a percentage of management’s wage (IE: just because management got a raise does that mean the rank and file are entitled to one as well). My last editorial was straight out of business 101: seniority breeds mediocrity. No big earth shattering news there. Those sentiments have been talked about in the business literature for over 50 years.
I never tried to hide anything Winston. If you had asked I would have gladly outed myself. As you pointed out: I am the Medical Base Manager for AirEvac Services in Buckeye, AZ. Before that I was a member of the management team at Altru.
I have done a number of editorials over the years on a variety of subjects. Lately making sure the Fighting Sioux nickname is retired (with honor or quietly by the back door, either way as long as its gone) and commenting on the foolhardiness of this labor action have been my two main topics.
Why do I get a say: I used to live there, my kids still live there, I support the local economy more than you could ever know in the form of keeping the kids fed, clothed, and in iPods, as well as tuition, and most importantly: I will probably return some day. Hopefully as a prof at UND.
Until then I will keep doing what I am doing.
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Thank you Starbuck and I don’t care who you are or where you live…you still have a right to your opinion…shame on you Winston Cooper….or is that your real name…I don’t blog under my full name as I have been attacked by union members because I don’t bow down to any one
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This is what they do. If you disagree with them, they resort to thuggish tactics. Does this really surprise anyone?
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Got to hand it to you Paul, you’re pretty smart. Smart enough not to live up in this frozen tundra. A winter’s not complete unless one can get away to southern Arizona or California. I know my body feels a lot better down there after two weeks.
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When I decided to go to graduate school I applied at University of Arizona and University of Florida. I was accepted at both but chose AZ because the previous year FL was hit with 4 hurricanes!
The funny thing is UofA could not give me what I needed so I ended up back where I started: UND. I love the AZ weather but I miss the green (AZ being a desert is by definition brown). I also miss my kids and grandchild (children).
If someone could make the sun shine a little more regularly, I’d be back in a heart beat. 3 months of slate grey sky — the very thought gives me a panic attack. I never minded the cold, even walking from the Ralph to Merrifield Hall or the Chester Fritz at 40 below. Just that damn bleak sky.
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I wonder if this year the former union workers will give thanks for their right to picket and eat their frozen shoes.
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I glad I got a job.
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Thats what we call the Pride Of Dakota….Enrique we are glad to have you in North Dakota….I bet you do a good days work for your employer and go home with pride that you did so…no entitlement…no whining
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We have clean cheap electricty from coal here in ND which greatly helps our strong working middle class, also the MPCA does not run up its revenue with fines to keep it self funded here (which is good for our business climate). Good luck with the taxes in Minnesota since the only way the money problems in that state will be solved is to take the money out of the pockets of its working middle class.
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