Workers, company ready for talks Friday
June 7, 2012 at 1:35 am in Grand Forks Herald
As a single mother of two and a four-year employee of American Crystal Sugar’s plant in Hillsboro, N.D., Rochelle Harley never had trouble making ends meet until the company’s lockout put her out of work 10 months ago. Harley and about 100 other workers rallied in front of American Crystal’s headquarters here Wednesday in the final stage of a 200-mile march that began last week. Continue Reading
There is nothing stopping any of them from going back to the work they claim they want to return to. Unless of course they have a fear of union thuggery and retribution in the rare event that the current union leadership agrees to the Final Offer.
What is sad is that I know a UND engineering student who is interning at the EGF plant and gets flipped off by the union stooges every day he drives past them and goes to work. Those are the people the company doesn’t want back. Good riddance to them.
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Do you have spell check?
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Two plus two equals four
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Which is why when I read about people losing their homes & draining their life savings I have zero sympathy. They chose this outcome. There are no victims.
I cannot believe people would put their families in this situation. It is unconscionable.
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Please elaborate on why the contract was so unsignable.
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I also have respect for the men and women that stood up for safer work environments and a better standard of living. God Bless our great grandparents and their parents for doing so. Jeff it was a hundred years ago, its time to quit living in the past my friend, its not even your past.
I also have respect for these union employee’s. They had the right to vote on a fair contract and the right to turn it down. And now ten months later they have the right to find a new job.
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P.S. I heard American Crystal Sugar is hiring. You should look into it Jeff, they are offering good wages and benefits.
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Ron, you are so sad! you are welcome to stay the #*@* out, but dont think for a minute you can push your union beliefs onto good people willing to work and promote themselves. Your idea is like Hitlers, what you believe in is what everyone should believe in, or else…
PS, Im getting tired of paying your bills! go find another job
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You are ignorant if you believe it is OK to “flip” someone off. It goes to show union supporters have little class.
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So all the unionites had been telling him for the several months before was that he was #1 also? How so very nice of them.
My source tells me that Mr. Patula had been receiving the one finger salute for months before he finally had enough and reciprocated. So don’t try and use this one example to try and show how bad the supervisors are. The man reached his breaking point after several months of receiving the same gesture.
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You are so right. No where in the article does it come right out and say she did not seek other employment. Sometimes it is what is not said that speaks the loudest. I don’t care. It is absolutely stupid to use a lockout as an excuse to not make payments. I was simply stating that as a mother I find it horrid that she wouldn’t do whatever it took to make ends meet….no matter the reason. No excuses. Lumped together or not the result is the same. No one is entitled to money they did not earn unless a person is physically or mentally incapable . If one job is there for a person go find another..or two. A few years back my husband and I found things weren’t financially meeting for us so in addition to both working full time I took another pastime job and he took and he pick up 3 more part time jobs. That’s the way it works. My kids will be very productive because they saw no excuses from us and we didn’t accept any from them. Great attitudes, great ethics and some of the politest kids you will ever meet. They watch these people (I’m lumping) stand and complain about their situation and ask why they don’t pull up their boot straps and do something about it. We live near the EGF site and they are disgusted by what they see and hear. It’s not rocket science. If that lady wasn’t using the lockout as an excuse she would have found a way to take care of her kids. Lumps and all.
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Oh, and I didn’t say they (or you) were sick and lazy, I said the thought process was.
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Ron, your comment is disappointing. Your comments are usually well written and assert a position from a reasonable point of view even if I don’t always agree. However, the suggestion that it is appropriate for management or the union to engage in acts of intimidation, buffoonery or violence is in silly.
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Ron, you are one sad individual. I wouldn’t hire you with your attitude. And if you were a Crystal union employee, I’m sure you must be one of those that got the “you are not welcome back” letters in the rare event there is a settlement. That is the real reason for your bitterness.
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Besides Ron, the UND kid is not a “Scab” (if that should matter). He is doing engineering work under the guidance of a Mechanical Engineer that NO union employee is qualified to do. Calculus is a prerequisite.
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“I have no sympathy for that “poor” und student. He chose to take an internship at a plant in the middle of a labor dispute.”
And yet you HAVE sympathy for the locked-out workers that ALSO made a choice that carried with it some consequences?
You’re an enigma Ron.
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As Ron admits unions tend to be violent. The workers should do what is best for themselves and their families. Not what the union thinks is best. Take the deal and go back to work.
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I don’t get it. As a mother I find it difficult to wrap my mind around the fact the woman in this article wouldn’t seek out other employment, at the very least on a temporary basis. Even if she intended to go back to work if or when the settlement is reached. It might not be ideal (in her mind) to work at Walmart or where ever but to let your pride stand in the way of paying your electric bill….come on. I’ve had some tough times in my life and had to do without but I’ve always been willing to piece together what my family needs. There have been times in our lives that between my husband and myself we have worked six jobs….things are better now but we worked our tails off, and the kids always had lights to do their homework. Sick, lazy, entitled thought processes these people have.
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Bingo. The longest I have ever been out of work is 3 weeks, & that is because 2 of those weeks I was on vacation.
The thought of not working is not only foreign, but unacceptable.
My brother in law was laid off & nearing the end of his unemployment. He was whining that there were no jobs in his area. My answer was simple: move!
We have all been forced to do things we did not want to do in order to survive. I do not understand why these jokers think tey are exempt.
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This stood out to me, also. As a mom, her first and biggest priority is to make sure she is able to provide for her children. As soon as the workers discovered they were locked out, she should have been looking for another job. Not wasting her time picketing in front of ACS HQ in Moorhead. How is that going to get food on the table? Get her rent caught back up? Her power turned back on? If she’s fallen on hard times, that’s on her – not anything that ACS has or has not done. It is up to the individual to make sure they have a job. You lose one job, you find another. Not spend nearly a year crying “poor me, I lost my job”.
When are the union workers going to figure it out? There is absolutely NO reason for ACS to bend in the slightest on the contract. They didn’t do it last fall when it meant losing money by hiring and housing replacement workers. Now that they have local replacement workers, who have gone through a processing season, what makes the union think that ACS has changed their stance? If anything ACS is in a stronger bargaining position than they were last fall.
Swallow your pride, and get back to work. Your children will thank you when they have a house to sleep in, lights to see by, and food on their table.
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TJ out of respect for you I am keeping my mouth shut.. However I am finding it more and more difficult each day.
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I’m biting my tongue right now Mav. I would have much rather the union went into this meeting quietly. I don’t like the radical approach.
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I’ve written so many comments and then deleted instead of hitting “submit”, in part out of respect for TJ’s request to MYOB. I find writing helps me clarify my thinking, but this has gone on so long that most regular contributors here have already made all of their “good points”. Unfortunately, heels are just getting dug in deeper and there continues to be less and less real discussion here…. more just spouting previously spouted views.
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I have so much respect for so many of you. I can’t thank each of you enough for your friendship these past several months. I’m afraid if I list names I will leave somebody important out so I’m going to thank you all in general.
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Ron: are you really that dense? No one took anything away from the union. They gave those jobs up of their own free will
I have several relatives that worked for AT&T & other manufacturers until their jobs left the country.
Their jobs were taken away from them.
The ACS malcontents cannot claim the same thing.
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“There is nothing wrong with a few choice words for scabs”
There’s nothing wrong with acting like a grown-up either Ron. It’s beyond many folks’ comprehension that childish behavior should not only be tolerated, but “rewarded” with *support* from the community.
Don’t know about you Ron, but I always step up and offer a pat on the back when I see an adult acting like a spoiled child.
I’m all about enabling.
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Isn’t that cute…The guy sucking up to the big money can be condesending to those who call BS on this whole crap fest….Mr. Crystal…You need more than a few choice words…You need to be shaken to the core until you wake the hell up and stop being against the working class……..Or are you one of those who think that you too will be allowed a seat at the table of the Privledged Class once all the Riff Raff is under control……Ya right….Dream on dreamer…..
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To sum up the entire issue….YAWN.
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I am just glad that the union reps aren’t childish and unprofessional. You know like making drunk phone calls and stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE3sZG_yxf0&feature=plcp
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scole….this is the guy that is representing the locked out workers. Does that sound “Eckible” to you? Let’s all buy this guy another beer and capture more hilarious videos for You Tube!!!
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Your statements aren’t worth a response. Wait, I just responded with a response…
It was the unions CHOICE not to accept the offer. It was the choice of others to accept the same offer.
Had the union approached the process in a professional manner from the beginning and continued a “high road” tactic, the results would be different. Unfortunately, counterexamples include: wearing “we will strike” T-shirts and an early negotiating session, Froemke drunk-dialing Berg, and classless Youtube videos. It is also childish to stand in front of a gate shouting obscenities, using obscene gestures, and burning symbols of board and management personnel in effigy. The union members doing this set an example for all and garnered little support from the region. Case closed as far as I’m concerned. All the growers I know feel the same way and don’t want any of those people back, EVER. Get over it and move on.
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You work for somebody? So apparently you just bend over and say….”Thank you sir…Can I have another” After being shafted? Now that’s great stratagy….
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Yes, I do. I possess a unique skill set that puts me in high demand anywhere in this country due to many years of advanced education and experience in the field. An education to broaden your skills is important to anyone. So, if someone wants to shaft me, I look somewhere else.
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I too can pretty much go where I want after many years of experience putting too big trucks into too small places. I probably should have just said the hell with it and moved on a few years back when they kept getting more half brained ideas by people with business education who never drove a truck a day in their life…Yet know all about trucking somehow….But I’m too ornery and can afford to stand my ground because they don’t have a vast amount of skilled drivers….Besides….I kind of like the fact thagt it bothers some desk jockies that they wont try to get rid of me…….Rookies are so much easier for them…….
I believe in the working class and through years of experience I have a lot of mistrust when it comes to upper management……Every hear of the Peter principle? Well now days instead of working through the ranks to that level many seem to start at that level and never really aquire enough real experience to figure out just how bad decision makers they are until a good deal of damage is done. So I really have little respect for executives and coporations. I’m not involved with the lock out, but the workers are between a rock and another rock and I get upset when people want to come down on the working class as if they should just roll over to the coporate class…..I wont and I don’t fault others for standing up together or for themselves….
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After rounds of free drinks and a couple packs of Winston’s everything sounds “Eckible”. I have to admit this whole thing would be pretty damn boring without the RiskyFroemke.
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What are you smiling about? Let’s hear it. Give us your take on this.
If given the chance to vote…will it be yes or no?
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At TJ…….it would be a HELL YES. Even though I’m not happy with the company, I’m sure NOT happy with the union.
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I’m hearing alot of that from union people. I sure hope it works out. We can’t rely on union leadership to get people back to work.
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You know how I feel about you Tundra…you are my closest friend on these boards. Thank you for your friendship.
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Look at that…You went from overwhelming love to being on shaky ground by responding to big rabble rouser me……This crowd will definately deem you guilty by association on here……Me….I just love the red…It goes along with my white and blue for the American worker…..And if that irritates some of these foolish CEO suck ups….Then I’m a happy guy….
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Give ‘em hell Tunda. They don’t get to pick my friends for me. We have never had to agree on every part of every issue to get along. You and bac are easy to talk to and I enjoy your take on things. Like bac said before…this is just entertainment. Nothing said here amounts to a hill of beans. It’s better than watching The View.
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