business

American Crystal Sugar says it will lock out about 1,300 workers at its five Red River Valley sugar mills and bring in replacement workers if a new labor agreement isn't reached by Monday.

The Moorhead, Minn.-based farmers co-op, the largest U.S. sugar beet producer, and the union representing its production workers are negotiating this week to replace the seven-year contract that expires at midnight Sunday.

Both sides say contract talks usually go down to the wire, but John Riskey, president of Local 167G of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union, said he can't recall a lockout threat by the company.

A lockout would affect three Minnesota plants -- in Moorhead, East Grand Forks and Crookston -- and mills in Hillsboro and Drayton, N.D. The last time American Crystal Sugar had a work stoppage was in 1981, when the union struck for almost a month.

Union representatives say American Crystal Sugar's contract proposal would dismantle seniority rights and allow the company to contract out union jobs to outside firms. There also is disagreement over insurance issues. Union officials said talks haven't yet focused on wages as the two sides wrestle with other issues.

The company declined to comment on the substance of negotiations. "We want to avoid a lockout -- that's our first priority," said Brian Ingulsrud, American Crystal Sugar's vice president for administration.

The lockout threat "was a very difficult decision, but we had to have a contingency plan in place," Ingulsrud said.

That plan includes bringing in temporary replacement workers, who Ingulsrud said would be necessary because of the timing of the beet harvest.

Since the last contract was agreed upon at American Crystal, beet yields have grown, so the harvest increasingly begins in mid-August, Ingulsrud said. It kicks into high gear in the fall.

"We have a perishable product in our beets," Ingulsrud said. "When the harvest starts they need to be sliced immediately, especially with the heat in August."

Riskey said the union offered to extend the current contract, but American Crystal Sugar declined.

Ingulsrud said an extension "really wouldn't do much in solving the real problems. It would just move the issue down the road."

Mark Froemke, an American Crystal union worker on leave to head the AFL-CIO's Red River Valley council, said that "instead of preparing for a contract, [American Crystal Sugar] is preparing for a war."

Mike Hughlett • 612-673-7003