CEO likens union contract to cancer in American Crystal Sugar lockout

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/30/1040899/-CEO-likens-union-contract-to-cancer-in-American-Crystal-Sugar-lockout

Wed Nov 30, 2011 at 08:26 AM PST

By Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Workers at American Crystal Sugar remain locked out after four months—and a recording of company CEO Dave Berg speaking to shareholders on Nov. 7 demonstrates very clearly what the workers are up against.

Berg describes a friend who was feeling unwell and, after going to the doctor, had a 21-pound tumor removed. He continues:

I’m not saying a labor contract is cancer, but it affects you, it will drag you backward, you can’t do what you need to do. And I’m not saying we’re trying to get rid of the labor contract, we are not about union-busting. Take that one home with you, we are not about union-busting, but we can’t let the labor contract make us sick for ever and ever and ever. We have to treat the disease and that’s what we’re doing here.



(The recording was made available by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union.)

I don't know about you, but speaking for me, when the CEO of a company that has locked out its workers and hired replacement workers despite safety problems starts off with "I'm not saying a labor contract is cancer" in the midst of comparing his company's labor contract to cancer, his subsequent claim that "we are not about union-busting" starts to feel a little disingenuous. Particularly when in the same speech he returns to the cancer analogy, saying "At some point that tumor's got to come out. That's what we're doing" and referring to the money the lockout was costing the company as an investment.

FULL article covers NBA lockout.

[SteveM]

1. Head of Whole Foods considers unions "parasites." nt

[PETRUS]

2. It's a not uncommon frame of mind among the executive class.

[aquart]

3. The overpaid and unpatriotic parasite class?