American Crystal Sugar
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
bctgm, bakers union, tobacco union, candy union, food workers, food workers union, grain millers, grain millers union, mondelez, nabisco, snack union,
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“The opposition from employers and their strong political representatives seems sharp and constant, and in the face of these, it is our declared purpose to maintain our unity and solidarity.”   – From the Declaration of Principles, BCTGM Constitution   Looking at these words from the BCTGM’s Declaration of Principles, it is as if those leaders who wrote our Constitution knew exactly what our Union has been up against for the past four years and how we have...

13 March, 2014

Fargo, ND – Locked-out members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) met with community leaders at the Holiday Inn in South Fargo, where American Crystal Sugar Company was holding its Joint Annual Meeting today, to discuss harm the over 16-month lockout of union workers is causing the company and community. “The lockout is hurting, not only factory workers, our families and communities, but Crystal Sugar itself and many people for...

06 December, 2012

Jackie Tortura, AFL-CIO For the fourth time, locked-out American Crystal Sugar workers rejected an identical contract offer from the management company. The workers are members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM). American Crystal Sugar workers have gone 16 months without a contract.  Susan Sylvester, a Crookston, Minn., resident who has worked at the company for 37 years, told the Huffington Post: Our families, they’ve really suffered great hardship, especially the ones with little kids...

03 December, 2012

Below are photos of Locked-Out American Crystal Sugar workers handing out boycott information in the Red River Valley last week.  Read more about their struggle here, and click here to sign the pledge to boycott American Crystal Sugar!   ...

14 November, 2012

With the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, working families throughout the country have launched a nationwide consumer boycott of American Crystal Sugar products in response to Crystal’s Sugar 14-month lockout of 1,300 BCTGM members.  The AFL-CIO noted that the boycott will be called off if the management of Crystal Sugar, which has denied its workers the opportunity to do their jobs, returns to the bargaining table in good faith and concludes a contract.   This consumer boycott is part of the...

16 October, 2012

Please take a moment to watch this moving video of children of locked out workers that illustrates the unnecessary human cost of corporate greed.  American Crystal Sugar and its increasingly well-paid CEO, Dave Berg thought record profits and skyrocketing CEO pay were not enough, and instead of expressing gratitude to their workers have instead denied them the chance to work to make a living. This video, shot at East Grand Forks, MN at the American Legion on...

10 October, 2012

(Tula Connell published this Blog post today on AFL-CIO-NOW)  Despite waking up with the flu one morning this week, Bonnie Holter headed out to take part in a 6 a.m. vigil outside the home of a member of the American Crystal Sugar Co. board of directors in East Grand Forks, Minn. Tired and ready to head back to bed after returning home, she still exuded the resolve that, despite having retired from American Crystal Sugar this...

13 September, 2012

AFL-CIO - Michael Frank headed over to a rally in East Grand Forks, Minn., last night, one of many he’s taken part in over the past year. Frank, along with 1,300 other workers, was locked out of the American Crystal Sugar factory a year ago, and last night’s event was part of the workers’ ongoing efforts to urge the sugar beet processing company return to the bargaining table. “They don’t...

24 August, 2012

Audio available at https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12103381/7-25press%20conference.mp3 (St. Paul, Minn., July 25) – Today AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined 1300 workers with the Bakery, Confectionery Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), who have been locked out of five processing facilities and other facilities of American Crystal Sugar, in announcing that the AFL-CIO and BCTGM are escalating their campaign for fairness and justice at the company. The lockout, which began on August 1, 2011, came in the...

25 July, 2012

Workers and Supporters Call on Crystal Sugar to Engage in Real Negotiations to Reach Fair Contract Drayton, ND—This morning, two-dozen workers who have been locked out of their jobs at American Crystal Sugar Co. (ACS) for ten months walked out of Drayton on their way to Grafton, ND. Over the next seven days, the workers—members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers’ International Union (BCTGM)—will walk or ride in a hay wagon approximately 200...

31 May, 2012

East Grand Forks, Minn.—Thirty-four representatives of 11 BCTGM local unions met April 14 to discuss issues of importance to union members employed in the sugar industry. Chief among those issues was American Crystal Sugar’s (ACS) lockout of 1,300 BCTGM members in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Iowa nearly nine months ago. Participants in the sugar meeting included representatives from Locals 167G (Grand Forks, N.D.), 267G (Crookston, Minn.), 372G (Hillsboro, N.D.), 283G (Twin Falls, Idaho), 369G (Renville, Minn.), 282G...

18 April, 2012

From the Roquette corn milling facility in Keokuk, Iowa, to American Crystal Sugar in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota and Cooper Tires in Findlay, Ohio, employers are turning to lockouts as a tactic to force union workers to accept major concessions when contract negotiations deadlock. For the BCTGM, the lockout of 1,300 workers at American Crystal Sugar is the most glaring example of the lengths to which employers will go to bust...

20 March, 2012

  As we begin the new year, the immediate challenges that lie ahead for the BCTGM are as daunting as any this Union has faced in its long and proud history. Many employers in our industries are pursuing a destructive strategy of "my way or the highway" in their relationship with our Union. Tragically, the 1,300 BCTGM members at American Crystal Sugar remain locked out of the jobs they want to return to; jobs they so ably...

08 March, 2012

Twin Cities Business magazine examines the lockout of 1,300 BCTGM members at American Crystal Sugar and the fate of the Farm Bill. "Despite escalating costs for all concerned, American Crystal Sugar is operating without 1,300 unionized factory workers locked out six months ago.  Upping the ante, the union threatens to pull support for the Farm Bill, which in turn could hurt the entire sugar industry." Click here to read/print the entire article....

05 March, 2012

Supporters Deliver Petition Signed by Tens of Thousands to Crystal Sugar Headquarters Fargo, ND—Hundreds of union members, their families, and supporters rallied in Moorhead, MN, today to protest the lockout of some 1,300 workers by American Crystal Sugar Company (ACS). After the rally, a delegation of labor and community leaders delivered a petition signed by more than 33,000 people to the company’s headquarters. The petition calls on CEO David Berg to end the lockout and resume...

22 February, 2012