American businesses are renewing with an old weapon: lockouts, i.e. the management ordering the temporary closure of a plant. American Crystal Sugar, a world-class agricultural cooperative specializing in the production of sugar from sugar beets, has been locked down since August 2011, when the wage talks between the management and the Bakery Confectionery Tobacco workers and Grain Millers, BCTGM, union, were suspended. The group’s 1,300 union-represented employees, divided in 5 plants in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa, are no longer allowed into the sugar mills. 900 temporary workers were hired as replacement.
rs and Grain Millers, BCTGM, union, were suspended. The group’s 1,300 union-represented employees, divided in 5 plants in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa, are no longer allowed into the sugar mills. 900 temporary workers were hired as replacement.
Gary Chaison, Professor of Industrial Relations at Clark University, explains, “Lockouts were not used much before because they were counterproductive. The profit losses caused by the lockout were even greater than with a strike.” Therefore, employ
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