Vol. 77/No. 17      May 6, 2013

“The vote total was what I figured it would be,” said Randy Anderson, who was locked out at American Crystal’s plant in Drayton. “One of my concerns is the longer we hold out, the less union people we would have in the plant,” said Anderson. He estimates about 75 workers will return to work in Drayton, about half the number working there before the lockout.

“One problem we had was the lockout dragged on for too long,” said Anderson. “We should have had meetings with everybody from all five plants. If we had worked together, we would have come up with a plan a while back on how to move forward.”

American Crystal, the largest U.S. sugar-beet producer, locked out all 1,300 workers Aug. 1, 2011, at its five mills in North Dakota and Minnesota and at two small processing plants in southern Minnesota and Iowa, after BCTGM members rejected the company’s concession demands by 96 percent. Later that year, a second contract offer was rejected by 90 percent. The third and fourth offers were voted down by narrower margins of 63 percent in June 2012 and 55 percent in December.

The approved contract includes a return-to-work clause stipulating a “good-faith effort” by the company to return locked-out workers to their previous jobs in about six weeks. “The transition period to bring them back is expected to be complex and patience will be required by all parties,” said a statement on American Crystal’s website. Phone calls requesting comment from company representatives were not returned.

“We are worried about the company’s statement about ‘good faith,’” said Becki Jacobson, from the Moorhead, Minn., plant. “I am not happy at all with the contract. The company will have a stronger say on who fills job openings, who qualifies for full-time jobs, who gets promotions, how work is contracted out. Many of us feel there will be a target on our backs.”

American Crystal remained intransigent in its demands, which included replacing some union jobs with contract workers, ending seniority for recall after seasonal layoffs, expanding second-tier workers, the ability to increase health care costs at whim, and eliminating retiree health coverage for new hires.

American Crystal bosses prepared the lockout well in advance, hiring the scab-herding outfit Strom Engineering to line up hundreds of replacement workers, who started working the day after the lockout began.

With half the company’s employees either resigned or retired in the course of the lockout, “the majority of those replacement employees will be able to stay with the company,” American Crystal Vice President Brian Ingulsrud told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“I understand those who voted against the contract and are disappointed with the outcome, and I understand those who voted for it,” said Brady Stevenson, 25, who worked at the Drayton plant for 11 months before the lockout. “Now we need to go back and stay together as a union. We will have to work with scabs who crossed the line and some former union members that crossed as well. I have less time in the factory. I think this process is harder for those that worked 20 to 30 years in the plant, but we have to move on.”

During the lockout, union members organized rallies, food drives, solidarity caravans, and expanded picket lines and raised thousands of dollars in contributions from other unions. But these activities tapered off after the first eight months. More and more workers retired. Many others got new jobs, including out of state. And after the fourth contract vote, a trickle of locked-out workers started to cross the picket line.

Cops, courts side with bosses

Some 400 workers in North Dakota were denied unemployment benefits until a district court decision was narrowly overturned by the state Supreme Court Feb. 26. The pretext for the denial had been an interpretation of a 1981 law that said employees who are not working “due to a strike, sympathy strike, or work stoppage dispute of any kind which exists because of a labor dispute” would not be eligible for jobless compensation. The American Crystal case was the first time the state job service sought to withhold benefits to locked-out workers on that basis.

On April 17 the North Dakota legislature voted 62-30 to explicitly add lockouts to the list of labor disputes that in the future will not qualify for unemployment benefits. The new law is before Gov. Jack Dalrymple for signing.

“I voted against the first two contracts, and voted for the last three,” said Pat Mooney at the union hall here. “I’ve been working a job at half the pay I had and I am way behind on my bills. The union needs to get back in the plant.”

“No one was impressed with the contract,” said Scott Aubol, who had worked 34 years at American Crystal’s plant in Crookston, Minn. “Many couldn’t afford to stay out longer. It was cruel what the company did. They starved us out.”

“It was a long drawn out thing,” said Brian Berg. “I voted against it because there was no trade-off. I wish more of us could have hung in there longer.”

“The lockout cost the company a lot of money, and its reputation,” said Wayne Netterlund, who recently retired. “Was it worth it? I’m not sure. I think there were not any winners.”

“It’s true that we didn’t win any concessions from the company, but we did accomplish some things,” said Jacobson. “We made a lot of friends. We reached out to unions and received lots of support — from Steelworkers, Teamsters, and many others. More than that, just ordinary people showed their support for our fight in all kinds of ways over the past 20 months. We are different people from this experience. Now we go back in the plants. It won’t be easy. The fight will go on.”

In the coming weeks, union workers will be attending company meetings to learn the details of returning to work.
 
 
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On the Picket Line
FBI framed union militants to gag opponents of WWII
 
 
 
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