Berg says American Crystal Sugar has no plans to budge on offer
May 25, 2012 at 2:45 am in Grand Forks Herald
With the price of its 10-month-old lockout falling by the day and thousands of workers seeking jobs under the terms rejected by union employees, American Crystal Sugar has no plans and little incentive to budge from the contract offer it’s had on the table since last fall. Continue Reading
And why should they? The plant is up and running and the only people crying are those who voluntarily walked off the job and now think they should be able to come back on their terms. If they want to work, there’s always McDonalds, Burger King and other minimum wage jobs with no benefits.
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ACS is a strong company, this lockout proves that as a company they have a management team in place that was proactive to a potential strike situation. I think this caught the union off gaurd, it is obvious that the union did not think a lockout would occur. The proactive management team at ACS directed programs for training and safety. With robust training and safety programs, the need to hire specific skill sets diminishes. It seems that the union representatives are hung up on the lack of skilled labor, and keep preaching that the company is hurting because of it. Without a doubt, the company studdered at the onset of the campaign this year, but again due to teamwork and training, they pulled thru and had a successful campaing. Great Job Crystal Sugar!
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Stormy said, “I think this caught the union off guard”. I hope he’s right, but when do they stop acting so dumfounded? They are either trying to set an example or are still off guard. Which is it? It feels like the company isn’t locking out the employees any longer. The employees have owned this lockout for almost a year.
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I may have missed it in previous articles, but I’m curious….when does ACS no longer have to even meet with the union? At what point can they just hire non-union workers without the possibility of the union workers coming back to take the place of those who are working now?
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They have to go through the motions. Especially if a meeting is called by the Federal Mediator.
As for how long can this go on, no one has a real good answer. After one year of a labor dispute they can vote to decerify the union (the union members could do that now too) and start over.
I do not know how long the management team has to keep them “on the books” before they can simply release them. Others on here have said lockouts have lasted years.
If that is the case that is totally ridiculous. People need to get on with their lives one way or another. Limbo for years is completely unacceptable.
Then again, the locked out workers are not costing the company anything. At this point they are simply a data point in a file somewhere; it is the replacement workers who are earning wages and benefits.
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“it is the replacement workers earning the wages and benefits”.
Yes they are. Today. If the union is long gone. ACS can reduce the wage and benefits as it sees fits.
The management can then throw the nonunion workers and their lunch boxes out the door and told to never come back.
ACS is so appreciative of those replacement workers. We’ve seen that before.
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Theoretically that may never happen. In the world of the NLRB both sides need to agree on an impasse. This is a very simplified explanation but to the point.
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Mr. Riskey should be proud that the company is soliciting locked-out workers. This only proves that there are many Union workers worth bringing back. Who can argue the fact that good hard working people are needed to operate efficiently. I emphasize good and hard working, because my guess is those are the ones that have moved on.
Getting the factories up and running shouldn’t be to tough, ACS has been getting the factories ready every summer for the past 30+ years. In the last decade alone they have been using more contract labor in the summer so what would make this year any different.
ACS is entrenching themselves for the long haul. The Union better wake up and figure out what is happening. If they still believe that holding out will make their case stronger for the company to change it’s stance they better think again.
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I’ll just wait for the 8th and see what happens.
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