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Crystal Sugar workers call on CoBank to help end lockout
3 April 2012
| FARGO, North Dakota - Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union who have been locked out for more than eight months by American Crystal Sugar Co. will rally outside a CoBank customer meeting Tuesday. |
Because CoBank is Crystal Sugar’s principal lender, the workers are calling on the bank to urge company executives to end the lockout and return to negotiations.
The rally is scheduled for 4 to 6 p.m. outside the Ramada Plaza Suites and Conference Center, 1635 42nd St. S., Fargo.
CoBank provides Crystal Sugar with a line of credit in excess of $377 million, the union said. Crystal Sugar’s net revenues, production, and quality have declined since the lockout began because, workers argue, the company is relying on inexperienced replacements to process the beet harvest. Crystal Sugar executives are mismanaging the company’s finances, and therefore the money that CoBank has invested as its principal lender.
More than 1,300 workers have been locked out of American Crystal Sugar facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa since Aug. 1. Crystal Sugar is the nation’s largest producer of sugar from beets.
For more information
See the Workday special section on the lockout |
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