NLRB Hands American Crystal Big Victory In Lockout
Back in July the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 167G alleged that American Crystal was breaking the law by not negotiating with them in good faith. They filed a complaint with the NLRB, and today the NLRB has ruled on the complaint and not only found that American Crystal did negotiate in good faith, actually criticized the union for their unwillingness to negotiate.
FARGO, ND – The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed the charge by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 167G that American Crystal Sugar Company failed to negotiate in good faith.
In dismissing the charges, the NLRB cited multiple examples of American Crystal’s good-faith negotiating efforts and criticized the union.
“Throughout the bargaining process, we have committed to good faith negotiations in the interest of reaching a fair agreement with our employees,” said Brian Inguslrud, Vice President for Administration at American Crystal Sugar Company, said in a press release. “The National Labor Relations Board’s dismissal of the union’s charges clearly affirms that we have acted with transparency, clarity and willingness to compromise.”
According to the NLRB, the union “repeatedly refused to consider the Employer’s proposals, and made virtually no counterproposals to address the Employer’s objectives.” The NLRB also ruled that American Crystal had made significant changes to its proposals during negotiations in an attempt to win approval from the union. “The economics of its final two offers do not reflect bad-faith bargaining, and the last two proposals also included significant concessions on non-economic items,” read the dismissal.
“The Employer’s significant movement is particularly relevant because the Union made few (if any) concessions.”
In other words, the union thought they could bully and intimidate American Crystal into caving, but not even the union-friendly (under Obama) NLRB is siding with them.
This is a big, big blow to the union and its hard to imagine that this lockout is going to end without their agreeing to American Crystal’s final offer.
Though, frankly, given the behavior of the unions (racist threats, harassing replacement workers and even accusations of sabotage) I wouldn’t hire any of them back. Fire them all and go with the replacements.
Tags: american crystal, North Dakota News, unions
