SUPPORT CO-OP AND WORKER NEGOTIATIONS

Introduction

Background to the Lockout

American Crystal Sugar Cooperative (ACS), the largest beet sugar processor in the United States and wholly owned by farmers, locked out its 1,300 union workers August 2011. Since then the co-op met with the workers only three times and has remained adamant that they will not negotiate their contract offer with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) which represents the workers.

ACS has plants in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa, and while the workers in the latter two states receive unemployment benefits as locked out workers, over four hundred workers in North Dakota receive no supplemental wages. Families in small towns all across the Northern Midwest are facing hardship while the co-op hires scabs and rolls in the second most profitable year in history for the farmers who control the co-op.

The union has received support from many local and federal elected representatives. The former CFO of American Crystal Sugar called the co-op's lack of concern for their labor force despicable. Nevertheless, at the last meeting with the co-op, in early June, the union faced an intransigent management team.

In response to the concerns of some of the workers, the union held another vote on the contract Saturday, June 23^rd , the third since the lockout began. Previous votes showed over 90 percent rejection of the contract offer, and despite the months-long economic hardships on families, the workers again rejected the co-op offer by almost 2 to 1, with 82 percent of the membership voting.

ACS: A prosperous farmers’ cooperative

American Crystal Sugar proudly stands with the cooperative sector, as it says on its website:

American Crystal Sugar Company is a world-class agricultural cooperative specializing in the production of sugar and related agri-products. American Crystal is owned by approximately 3,000 shareholders who raise 500,000 acres of sugarbeets in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota.

ACS is a member of the National Council of Farmers Cooperatives, which in May declared 2012 the Year of the Farmer Co-op, in coordination with the US and UN Year of the Cooperative commemorations. It is unfortunate that while many communities across the country are celebrating the vital economic benefits that cooperatives have brought to rural America, the communities affected by this lockout are suffering economic hardships.

Petition

TO BE DELIVERED TO AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR CEO DAVE BERG

We, the undersigned, members of worker cooperatives, credit unions, food and housing co-ops, cooperative developers and educators, and customers of cooperatives throughout the United States, recognize that throughout American history amicable relations between unions and cooperatives have benefited both and we believe that fair labor practices are a vital element of the cooperative principles that American Crystal Sugar endorses.

We, therefore, as members of the US cooperative community, implore American Crystal Sugar to end the lockout and negotiate in good faith with their employees, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM).