(1,300) Locked-out sugar workers to vote Nov. 1 on contract offer

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Workday Minnesota

EAST GRAND FORKS - The 1,300 workers locked out of their jobs since Aug. 1 by American Crystal Sugar will vote Nov. 1 on a contract offer, their union announced.

Workers will learn the details of the proposal and take a secret ballot vote in each community where American Crystal has facilities: East Grand Forks, Crookston, Moorhead and Chaska, Minn.; Drayton and Hillsboro, N.D., and Mason City, Iowa. The meeting in East Grand Forks will be held at 1 p.m. Nov. 1 at the American Legion, the union said.

The workers, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers, were barred from working after they rejected Crystal Sugar’s contract offer by an overwhelming margin. The company, which is the nation’s largest producer of sugar from beets, has hired out-of-state replacement workers to run operations while the beet harvest takes place.

For weeks, the union sought to have management return to the bargaining table. The two sides finally met Monday and Tuesday with the help of a federal mediator. Key issues for the union in the talks are job security and health care costs.


Read more: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_5031

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