1,300 workers locked out at American Crystal Sugar

MOORHEAD, Minn. — About 1,300 union workers at seven American Crystal Sugar plants found themselves locked out of their jobs Monday, sitting outside company gates as a contract battle centered mostly on health care benefits and job security continued.

Workers were locked out of facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa in the company’s first labor impasse in 30 years. The union’s contract expired at midnight Sunday after workers overwhelmingly rejected what the company called its final offer.

The company’s latest offer was a 1.25 percent annual pay increase over five years. At the same time, executive base salaries have gone up from 6 percent to 26 percent in the past two years. Executives’ salaries account for only a third of their total compensation, which has bulked up by 40 percent to 125 percent as the beet crops and sugar prices have swelled.http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/18786/