Vol. 75/No. 35      October 3, 2011

The 1,300 workers locked out by American Crystal Sugar in the Upper Midwest are waging a battle on behalf of all working people. They deserve our solidarity. The company’s “last and final offer” would widen a two-tier wage system, hike medical costs, and gut seniority. In resisting these demands, the locked-out workers are standing up to the indignities imposed on working people as the employing class insists that we pay for the crisis of capitalism—their system, not ours.

The donations reported in this issue of $10,000 by members of United Steelworkers Local 560 from Gwinner, N.D., and more than $1,000 from members of the Nebraska AFL-CIO are recent examples of solidarity that can make a difference. Teamsters, nurses, airline workers, teachers, grain millers, and others have organized support.

Get your union to emulate these examples and make a contribution. Whether or not you’re a union member, talk to coworkers and other unionists in your area about organizing plant-gate collections. Get in a car and head to the picket lines in North Dakota and Minnesota, to be better armed to explain the stakes in the battle. The Militant’s weekly coverage is a valuable source of information about this and other working-class struggles.

Solidarity messages from unions or groups of workers—as well as fighters for Black rights, supporters of women’s equality, and student groups—let workers at American Crystal know that thousands of working people stand with them. End the lockout!
 
 
Related articles:
Sugar workers’ fight wins growing support
1,300 stand strong against American Crystal
‘We won’t go away’ say NY Boathouse strikers
Chicago forum discusses Midwest workers’ struggles
Broadening out solidarity for sugar workers
On the Picket Line
Four workers killed in coal mine flood in United Kingdom  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home