Gov. Mark Dayton was in Moorhead over the weekend to meet with both sides of the American Crystal Sugar labor dispute, where 1,300 workers have been locked out since August.
According to MPR: “Dayton offered to help restart contract talks and stay involved until the dispute is resolved. He said he brings negotiating experience gained during the state government shutdown.”
Dayton said:
“Realizing what it does take to come to a difficult resolution of very serious differences between two parties that have come not to trust one another. And that’s the situation today.”
No new negotiations have been scheduled yet, though.
Dayton also talked about his meetings with locked-out workers:
“It’s very, very painful, and I feel that right in my own being and especially at this holiday season. So it’s about dealing with the reality of the situation but saying that we’re going to get through that. We’re going to break through the impasse and get things solved.”
Crystal Sugar is a cooperative organization consisting of farmers. It earns nice profits every year because its skilled workers process its product and gets it to market, but no longer seems to want to treat those workers as fairly as it has until now.
It seems to have forgotten its own Farmers Union origins as their great-grandparents united in the early 20th century to fight big business’s exploitation.