American Crystal Sugar – Union busters
PLEASE BUY CANE SUGAR until this issue is resolved.
Please BUY PRODUCTS MADE WITH CANE SUGAR until this issue is resolved.
Almost any beet sugar product you buy will be produced by American Crystal sugar.
From AM950 Radio in Minneapolis
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About a million years ago I use to work for American Crystal Sugar. About a million years ago I tried to organize the office workers at American Crystal Sugar because they were getting screwed when it came to benefits. Even a million years ago, Crystal Sugar was management friendly and worker unfriendly. Looks like things have not changed in a million years.It’s time for consumers to speak with their pocket book about American Crystal Sugar’s lock out of their workers. Crystal Sugar wants their employees to sign a union contract that allows management to bring in non-union employees through independent contractors to supply employees at lower wages. It’s union busting. For example, Crystal Sugar could sell all its fork lifts and hire a company to supply fork lifts and fork lift operators. As an employee of the outsourced company, the fork lift operator is not entitled to the livable wages and health insurance benefits of the union.While employees average income of $40,000 per year, the price of the sugar beet crop hit a record high in 2010; from 2009 – 2011, Crystal Sugar’s net revenues were up 28% from 2009 to 2011; payments to farmers went from $503 million to $752 million, and the CEO’s pay went from $1.5 million to $2.44 million. The sugar beet farmers on the board of directors received $14 million in subsidies from the US government between 1995 – 2010.If all the 900 workers locked out collected unemployment compensation during the four months of the lockout, then the state of Minnesota has paid $2.5 million in unemployment compensation. 410 North Dakota workers are not getting unemployment compensation because the Governor says it is not a layoff!Consumers can send a message to Crystal Sugar that they won’t buy their sugar until they agree to a union contract that doesn’t allow non-union employees in the Crystal Sugar manufacturing plant
Today, American Crystal Sugar is screwing their union workers and I wanted to bring this fight to a larger audience.
In August of this past year, American Crystal locked out their union workers. The workers showed up one day to give American Crystal a good days work for the pay they had been promised and Crystal had locked them out – no notice. In North Dakota, American Crystal workers can’t collect unemployment because they were “locked out”, not “laid off”.
Here’s a couple of snips from the American Crystal Sugar Workers Lockout Webpage
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.
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.
“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.
To add insult to injury, Crystal Sugar has hired replacement workers through a Minnetonka-based consulting firm and is paying them more than the long-term employees – and giving them a daily per diem for expenses. Cars in local hotel parking lots carry license plates from North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi.
Posted by BCTGM - December 1, 2011
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The already strained relationship between management of American Crystal Sugar Company (ACSC) and its 1,300 locked out workers was dealt another serious blow when recordings of anti-worker statements by ACSC President and CEO Dave Berg were made public this week.
In a meeting of company shareholders on November 7 in Grafton, N.D., 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
American Crystal is Killing the American Dream
Here’s a couple of snips about management salaries.
EXECUTIVE PROFILEDavid A. BergChief Executive Officer and President, American Crystal Sugar Co.$2,438,775As of Fiscal Year 2011
EXECUTIVE PROFILEJoseph J. TalleyChief Operating Officer, American Crystal Sugar Co.$1,046,389As of Fiscal Year 2011
EXECUTIVE PROFILEThomas S. AstrupChief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance, American Crystal Sugar Co.$963,947As of Fiscal Year 2011
And then you have this:
With a reported 3,000 sugar beet farmer stakeholders in American Crystal, you can extrapolate and do the math yourself. On face value, one-third. Of that $242 million, nearly $193 million was via the Sugar Beet Diversion Program, with the remaining $49 million as part of the Sugar Beet Disaster Program.
In light of the current federal deficit and nearly bankrupt government subdivisions across the country, the lockout of American Crystal workers naturally leads to criticism of the farmers, themselves. That scrutiny of the sugar program very possibly puts the entire farm subsidy program at risk.
For example, best we can tell, the current chairman of American Crystal’s board reportedly received $495,047 in total farm subsidies between 1995 and 2010, including $57,989 in sugar beet subsidies. One other recent board chairman received $425,898 in total farm subsidies in that same time period, including sugar beet subsidies amounting to $39,923. Yet another former chairman of the board, as we read the information, garnered $629,152 in total farm subsidy payments in the same 16-year time frame, including $43,898 in sugar beet subsidies
Here’s a couple of snips about the average wages in the area that the executives live and the workers of their two biggest plants work in
Fargo, North Dakota
The median income for a household in the city was $35,510, and the median income for a family was $50,486. (Source: Wikipedia)
Moorhead Minnesota
The median income for a household in the city was $34,781, and the median income for a family was $49,118. (Source: Wikipedia)
Grand Forks ND
The median income for a household in the county was $35,785, and the median income for a family was $46,620. (Source: Wikipedia)
American Crystal Sugar – Union busters
PLEASE BUY CANE SUGAR until this issue is resolved.
Please BUY PRODUCTS MADE WITH CANE SUGAR until this issue is resolved.
Almost any beet sugar product you buy will be produced by American Crystal sugar.
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