Union Fail: American Crystal Workers Prove They Are Their Own Worst Enemies

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Written By:
Rob Port

Jun 25, 2012
9:41am

On Friday the American Crystal Sugar union workers again voted on what management says is the last contract they’ll offer. The union twice rejected this contract before, with over 90% of union members voting against it. This time around, with 82% of union members voting, only 63% voted against the contract.

A much smaller majority, but still a strong majority.

“If the company is interested in ending the lockout, they’ll come to the table and negotiate,” union boss John Riskey told the Grand Forks Herald. “The management hasn’t budged an inch and the ball is in their court.”

The notion that American Crystal management hasn’t “budged” in this matter is false. As the National Labor Relations Board said in rejecting a complaint filed by the union, management offered several iterations of the contract. It’s the union that hasn’t budged, and their friends are abandoning them. Despite vowing to bring about the end of the sugar program, the unions’ Democrat friends in Congress – including Senators Kent Conrad and Al Franken – voted to keep the sugar program in place.

Perhaps it’s slow to dawn on a group of people who believe they’re entitled to their jobs, but everyone else in this matter is moving on. Management has found a pool of workers willing to accept what the union workers wouldn’t, and you really have to wonder, why don’t those workers willing to take the deal have the same right to those jobs the union workers do?

Collective bargaining is a perfectly acceptable labor tactic, but it doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to work only on your terms. There are two sides to the deal, and bargaining means that both sides have the right to walk away from a bad deal.