NCL calls out American Crystal Sugar Company for inconsistencies regarding worker welfare – National Consumers League
June 6, 2012
Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org
Washington, DC–The National Consumers League, the oldest consumer advocacy organization in the country, sent a letter to the American Crystal Sugar Company today expressing disappointment with the company’s prolonged lockout of 1,300 union employees.
“We are perplexed at the continued actions of the American Crystal Sugar Company,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL’s Executive Director. The sugar industry supports industry-wide price supports and other subsides that they claim help create and maintain American jobs. This program costs American consumers an estimated $3.5 billion each year. NCL pointed out the inconsistencies in American Crystal’s position. “They profess their commitment to creating American jobs while at the same time locking out workers, all the while enjoying the largesse of consumer funded sugar subsidies.”
“Sugar growers have long justified the continued existence of the U.S. sugar program by pointing to their role as job creators,” said Greenberg. “We find this argument specious in light of American Crystal’s prolonged lockout of over 1,300 workers.” For nine months, since August 2011, the American Crystal Sugar Company, a sugar-beet processing company headquartered in Moorhead, Minnesota, has locked out union employees from their jobs.
“American Crystal should illustrate its commitment to creating and maintaining American jobs by engaging in good faith negotiations with its workers,” said Greenberg. “It is also time for the American government to stop subsidizing a profitable industry that treats American workers so poorly.”
Read Greenberg’s letter here.
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About the National Consumers League
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
