With 10 Percent Unemployment, Not Exactly The Right Time To Go Out on Strike

Updates

November 25, 2012: Union schedules new vote for December 1, 2012. This will be the fourth vote; American Crystal has not changed its offer since the beginning.  If union members vote it down, it tells me that folks have moved on, have adjusted to life without American Crystal. Now, I'm starting to wonder about the replacement workers. It seems a bit unfair and one would think that the replacement workers are fully trained. I don't know. It will be interesting to follow. If the union votes it down again, one almost wonders if a family member is a replacement worker. 

June 5, 2012: Crystal and union return to negotiating table.  Well, sort of.

Locked-out union workers at American Crystal Sugar Co. are in the middle of a 200-mile trek to the negotiating table, which the company says could be a long walk for a short meeting.

Union members are trying to highlight their cause by hiking and camping between locations in the Red River Valley where the company's sugar beet processing plants are located. The group expects to reach the company’s home base in Moorhead, Minn., on Wednesday.

April 27, 2012: Crystal reaches contract deal with workers at a subsidiary in Montana.  Still a stand-off in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. Incredible.

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Offered a 17 percent pay increase over five years, the union voted it down -- saying the contract did not offer enough.

With the lockout of about 1,300 American Crystal Sugar Co. workers entering its second month and no negotiations in sight, the company is ready to start the harvest season with inexperienced replacement workers.

Company officials say it will be business as usual when processing begins this week at plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa. Union officials question whether it can be done safely - and productively.

"Everybody in North Dakota is a potential replacement (at American Crystal) as far as that goes," said Michael Ziesch, a Job Service North Dakota research analyst. "There's nothing to say that somebody can't move from an existing job into one of those positions."

He added: "It's not like they're trying to find 1,000 neuroscientists. It's not that I'm trying to downplay the positions, but it's not super specific."

Many of the jobs will require someone to push a button to start the conveyor, and stop the conveyor if there's a problem. If there's a problem, the only other requirement will be to pick up the phone and call for maintenance. That was probably the language in the contract that folks objected to. My hunch is that most of the training will be about OSHA-required safety requirements, which are fine with me. Safety is the number one issue in jobs like this.

With national unemployment at 9%, California unemployment at 12% and Nevada unemployment at 12.1%, this is not a good time for workers to go on strike. Sites in Minnesota and Iowa, and even eastern North Dakota might look pretty tempting for someone not working in Alabama or Nevada.