Bluestem Prairie

Big trouble in Big Stone County: Strata mining, Ortonville Township and House File 389

Vicki Oakes, chair of the Big Stone County Planning and Zoning Commission, wasn't happy with the 100 restless citizens seated in front of her at the board meeting on Thursday night in Clinton, Minnesota, population 449. 

Upset by the possibility that beloved granite outcroppings in Ortonville Township might soon be blasted into aggregate for concrete, they'd organized, circulated a petition, written letters to the editors of local papers, and marched singing anti-mining tunes and carrying handmade pro-rock, pro-ball cactus signs to the Clinton Community Center.

Some weren't respecting her authority, throwing out loud suggestions about what she could do with the conditional use permit (CUP) sought by Strata Corporation, a Grand Forks sand and gravel corporation running gravel pits across the upper Midwest.

Not that the suggestions that "You could just vote no" were profane or vulgar. Just out of order.  But not too out of order, since sheriff's deputies were on hand to keep the peace, and the motley crowd of cattle farmers, small business people, students, Dakota activists, Republicans, DFLers, writers, artists, and local food growers had parked their signs outside.

But Oakes, Community Development Coordinator for the City of Ortonville, was letting her temper flair during the informally managed meeting. When citizens clapped, booed or recorded proceedings on cell phones, she slapped them down.

Welcome to pitchforks and torches, Minnesota Western Boundary Waters Nice style.

***

The dominant model for protest--Tea Party or leftward--is the Alinsky model: pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In Big Stone County, home to fewer than 5300 souls, this can be a bit awkward, especially when the argument isn't about stopping development, but rather, what sort of development is best to keep Big Stone County from continuing to hemorrhage people as residents take off to Sioux Falls or the Cities.

One bet is the traditional extractive industry like gravel pits.  The West Central Tribune's Tom Cherveny reports in Quarry proposal opens mining debate on the edge of Minnesota’s western boundary waters:

The quarry would pay a projected $20,000 a year in aggregate taxes to Big Stone County and Ortonville Township annually. It is projected to create six to eight jobs.

That's not a lot by metro terms, but on the western border away from any mini-metropolis, those jobs are hard to come by. The successful but aging farmer who seeks to lease his land to Strata Corporation frames the development in those terms.

Gayle Hedge shared his thoughts with writer Anne Queenan in emerging synergy for love of place?, a profile posted on her blog. Queenan writes:

Understanding Gayle’s story seems important as it has a pivotal impact on what the landscape will look like along the headwaters of the Minnesota River 130 years from now.  It is a story filled with hard work, entrepreneurism, humor and a big love of life in a small town of western Minnesota. . . .

Hedge believes the county will benefit from the proposed quarries with six to eight new seasonal positions for Big Stone County and a combined tax revenue of approximately $26,000 a year.  “Those employees will fill some of the many vacant houses available in Ortonville, ” Hedge said.  In addition, he plans to set up a fund for the City of Ortonville through $50,000 received from Strata Corporation in exchange for the agreement to mine the land for the next 130 years.  

In Big Stone County's scale of things, that's a generous endowment. Hedge is a respected member of his community who is looking to the longterm, 130 years into the future. Queenan's article doesn't spell out what entity will administer the fund (the City of Ortonville or a community foundation) but even quarry opponents appreciate the caring qesture.

Others suggest that the rock outcroppings--and the wildlife refuge and bike trail near them--have a more enduring economic value. Cherveny writes:

Lodging and hospitality industry revenues in 2010 in Big Stone County totaled $4.1 million, with tax revenues to all sources of $282,000, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

The environmental harm — the loss of yet another endangered rock outcrop — and what mining operations ultimately means to the area is what brought Duane Ninneman to Clinton on Sunday. Blasting and crushing rock and loading trains are all certain to add silica and other dust to the air and cause noise pollution to the detriment of residents in the area, he explained.

A Big Stone County resident and consultant with Clean Up the River Environment, Ninneman has been helping residents opposed to the project. “Our concern is our residents and making sure their way of life is a good way of life,’’ said Ninneman.

For Vicki Oakes, the dilemma isn't an abstraction, but a professional tension. In addition to serving as the Community Development Coordinator for the City of Ortonville, Oakes serves on the Western Prairie Waters Regional Tourism board.

***

Big Stone County resident Duane Ninneman also takes a long view, but sees things from a different perspective as a member of the Minnesota River revival movement. If it issued cards, he'd carry one, but the intentional community building that's been going on among sustainable development advocates hasn't gotten around to that part yet.

Instead, the movement members have built groups like CURE (Clean Up the River Environment), sustainability projects, the Meander art gallery crawl, eco-tourism and community building.  While there's oppositional organizing, as the case of the fight against the Big Stone II coal plant and the protest signs at the Clinton meeting, the folks along the Upper Minnesota River are more interested in teaching the art of hosting than selling the metrics of the Alinsky methods.

CURE Executive Director Patrick Moore, a mainstay on Montevideo's Main Street, hands me a flyer for the Art of Hosting Training that the group is sponsoring in early May at the Prairie's Edge Resort and Casino in Granite Falls. The Art of Hosting, the document tells me, attempts to heal the broken relationships between people.

In the conflict in Big Stone County, Moore seeks to stop the relentless march of the permit process so that citizens can hold the sort of "courageous conversations" that they need to have about what sort of communities they and their children should enjoy.  A musician and river enthusiast, he peppers his conversations with notions of respect, compassion and dialogue for everyone.

Right now, he and his friends in Big Stone County are talking about the interim ordinance that the Ortonville Township Board of Supervisors passed to give residents time to talk about what they want for their community. MPR's Mark Steil reports in Quarry plan faces more hurdles:

And there's another potential roadblock for the project. The Ortonville Township Board has passed a moratorium on new projects like the proposed quarry. The township plans to set up its own planning and zoning commission which would have to approve Strata's plans. Strata officials say they are reviewing the township action.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has consistently upheld the authority of townships to govern themselves and pass their own rules. It's part of the tradition of local control in Minnesota, one that's threatened by players far away from Big Stone County.

***

On Friday afternoon after the Clinton hearing, I receive a blast action alert from the Land Stewardship Project, which keeps a field office in Montevideo that promotes local food and sustainable, family-scale agriculture. Organizer Bobby King cuts to the chase about the threat to local control, specifically interim ordinances like that approved by the Ortonville Township board:

House File 389 will make it more difficult for citizens who want their township, county or city to take action and protect the community from unanticipated, harmful development. The bill weakens the power of local governments to enact interim ordinances (also called land use moratoriums). An interim ordinance allows local governments to quickly put a temporary freeze on major development. This power is essential when the community is caught off-guard by unanticipated and potentially harmful proposals, especially those from corporate interests and outside investors, such as big box stores like Wal-Mart or a large-scale factory farm. An interim ordinance freezes the status quo and gives the community time to review or create the appropriate zoning ordinances.

UPDATE: House File 389 was tabled at the Jan. 26 hearing in the House Government Operations and Elections Committee due to our phone calls and e-mails and strong testimony in opposition. Now new language for the bill is being proposed as a “compromise.” However, this new language still dramatically weakens local control and is NOT a compromise. Under this new proposal, after a project applies for a permit the local unit of government has a short window of time in which to enact an interim ordinance. If they miss that window, then the proposed project is exempt. The clock starts running before any public hearing — by the time there is a hearing, the clock could be run out. . .

In short, taking away one of the tools citizens in Big Stone County just implemented to stop the clock for a timeout and conversation. Gutting local control has long been a goal of developers and Big Ag, but with self-professed enemies of big government now in control of the state capitol, the odds for big government to neuter little government has never been higher.

Indeed, part of the rushed conversation about Strata in Big Stone County arises in that same paradox: thanks to a "reform" in the permitting process, Big Stone County has only 60 days to review a permit application under most circumstances, following recent reforms of the process.

Ortonville Township isn't alone in the questions it's taking time to ask about mining by enacting a moratorium.

Across the state in Southeastern Minnesota, Goodhue, Wabasha and Winona Counties have adopted interim ordinances to review the impact of silica sand (fracking sand) mining as the natural gas boom and attendent use of hydrologic fracking to abstract gas from shale fires demand for the fine sand.

Citizens on the other side of the state have packed committee and board hearings, held community meetings and physically blocked trucks hauling fracking sand. Those who argue for development talk jobs; those who oppose the strip mines talk water quality, dust, property value, natural beauty, property values--and jobs, created by tourism from people seeking the loveliness of the Upper Mississippi's driftless region.

***

Neither a need for dialogue nor the Ortonville Township Board of Supervisors was slowing down Big Stone County Planning Commission Chair Vicki Oakes in Clinton on Thursday Night.

And despite a rising series of complications and permit conditions involving dust, water quality issues, livestock health, road access, rare plants, and other issues, Oakes was pushing for "consensus," which looked more like taking a vote and getting a simple majority agreement than the generally accepted definition of  consensus.

This seemed odd, as many reasonable people in the crowd thought that perhaps the discussion might have led rational people to conclude that the site wasn't a particularly good choice for the operation, especially since there are so many other areas in the region where rock could be mined. Indeed, some observers later wondered why huge piles of tailings from old quarries couldn't be crushed for aggregate--and that doing so might cost Strata less, thereby increasing profit.  No time for dialogue on that.

Nor was Oakes buying a suggestion from a board member that perhaps Strata simply be allowed to have one quarry, for 30 years, so that the impacts of one mine could be assessed after one generation. Instead, she appeared to be on board with the notion that a permit for 130 years was the only reasonable approach for mining on the difficult site.

She also wanted the public to sit down and behave, though apparently she deemed representatives from Strata as having enough interest in the project to allow them to approach the tables where she sat to conduct side conversions that weren't clear to the rest of us.

Indeed, it was difficult to note just who was speaking in the meeting, since Oakes tended not to call on board members by name before they spoke. Since the meeting was only being audiotaped (with videotaping forbidden), I knew that it would be hard to tell who said what when I got the tape, so I tried shooting video with my cellphone. 

No dice: Oakes snapped at me to stop, and a few seconds later warned: "I better not see that posted on the Internet."

The board voted 5-3, with one abstention, to recommend passage of the CUP by the County Commissioners. Since the vote wasn't videotaped for all to see, a staff member at CURE created the graphic above.

After the meeting, I snapped some closeups of the board; Oakes ordered me to "Stop it." I indentified myself as a reporter/writer from a blog. She seemed more angry than ever (one suspects that rough treatment in a local online forum may have influenced that rage).

A few moments later, I approached her like my hand extended to shake and attempted to introduce myself and name the place where I publish, but she snapped at me to stop again. I asked once more if she wanted to comment --a request met with a resounding no.

Perhaps she might profit from taking in that training on the Art of Hosting in May--as may I.

Photos: The vote in Clinton (above; photo by BSP); the site in Ortonville Township (middle;photo by Anne Queenan); Vicki Oakes after the meeting ( below; photo by BSP).

Winona County fracking sand mining ops would spike truck traffic, engineer says

While the Winona Daily News' editorial page seemed to have lost its wits with the departure of editor Darrell Ehrlick, bemoaning the imposition of a silica sand mining moratorium when none had been put in place by the county board, the news staff is covering the issue.

In Sand mine would affect roads, Mary Juhl writes:

Three proposed frac sand mining operations in Saratoga Township could create a spike in truck traffic, potentially causing significant damage to Winona County roads, according to Dave Kramer, the county’s highway engineer.

As the Winona County Board of Commissioners prepares to discuss a possible moratorium on frac sand mining today, the highway department is researching the potential impacts of increased truck traffic.

Kramer, who has consulted with officials in Goodhue and Wabasha counties who face similar issues, said it would cost about $200,000 to reclaim one mile of road, though he said he can’t be sure that additional truck traffic would be significant enough to create the need for complete reclamation.

“This additional traffic would take a much higher amount of life out of the road in a short time period,” Kramer said. “Essentially, that would leave the rest of the road users to pick up the tab.”

County officials are looking at possible solutions to offset potential road-damage costs, including the enforcement of a tax on aggregate removal first approved in 1982.

Commissioner Mena Kaehler said that although the tax would generate money, it would likely not generate enough to cover full repairs.

So a private firm gets to wreck the roads and the citizens pick up the tab? Sounds like a 1% solution if there ever were one.

Kelly Kirk writes in a guest column,We have to live with the results after the mine is gone:

Historically, mining has been tied to the detriment of water and air quality, as well as the destruction of habitat. So when words such as "fracking" and "strip mining" were bandied about at the Oct. 20 Winona County Planning Commission meeting, all sorts of negative connotations come to my mind.

Mining advocate Jeff Broberg of McGhie and Betts Environmental Services of Rochester did little to dissuade me of the potential drawbacks to such practices. He presented only one side of the rubric: economics.

Broberg and others believe we, the concerned citizens, should step aside because we already have sand and quarry materials being trucked through Saratoga Township, the county and the city of Winona. Using that logic, no current practice or activity should ever be subjected to limits. If a shot of whiskey is good for you, alcohol poisoning must be even better.

Broberg should not belittle citizens' statements as they voice their concerns about air quality, road damage and noise intensity. These are valid concerns regarding any mining operation. Perhaps he could put us all at ease by introducing us to a successful silica sand operation that has recently closed with a happy general populace. What does restoration of the landscape look like? Who benefited from the practice? Who lost out with this endeavor? Would that community elect to do it again?

If the sand of Winona County is so valuable, why berate us with the implication that if we do not allow this operation to proceed right now, this economic opportunity may belost forever? Either our sand is valuable or it is not.

Read the whole thing in the WDN.

Related post:Fracking sand firm representative to Winona County citizens: "I have a higher level of rights"

 

 

Fracking sand firm representative to Winona County citizens: "I have a higher level of rights"

It's no wonder that Rochester-based development company McGhie & Betts representative Jeff Broberg was booed by the crowd that packed the a Winona County Planning Commission meeting Thursday night.

The Winona Daily News reports in a Winona County Planning Commission meeting Thursday night:

Broberg’s time at the podium eventually caused contention, and after he was challenged to stick to the recommended two-minute time limit, he responded:

“As the applicant’s representative, I have a higher level of rights on these issues,” Broberg said.

The crowd booed.

Goodhue and Wabasha Counties have adopted one-year moratoriums to study silica-sand (or "fracking sand") issues. And while Broberg's brand of arrogance doesn't build trust, it's not the reasons that the other counties are putting the brakes on the extraction of silica sand from the Mississippi Bluff counties.

It's health, safety and other issues, not "job creators" thinking they have more rights than the rest of the country. And while Broberg may have a point if he's actually thinking of "legal standing," that sort of statement isn't going to win friends in a country whose attention is increasingly occupied by the loss of power by ordinary citizens.

Just saying.

Related posts: Goodhue County commissioners unanimously pass fracking sand mining moratorium

No fracking way: Wabasha County places temporary moratorium on silica sand mining

Srsly chimerical: Tim Pawlenty joins board of porcine-human organ research company

The Star Tribune and other venues are noting that Pawlenty joins board of technology firm called RedPrairie, but out here on the prairie, Pawlenty has gotten on board with a different sort of tech.

MiroMatrix, set to open a plant in Glencoe's industrial park on October 27, is a regenerative medicine firm that seeks to manufacture human organs for transplant from swine parts:

It sounds like something right out of a science fiction novel - making human organs from pigs - but Robert Cohen, chief executive officer of MiroMatrix Medical, said that is exactly what is planned when the start-up company opens its doors Oct. 27 with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the facility in Glencoe's industrial park.

MiroMatrix will be housed in the same building as Midwest Porcine Recovery, which opened its doors in 2010.

The two companies will be working in tandem - Midwest Porcine supplying the raw material and MiroMatrix the technology and know-how.

MiroMatrix is now in the process of finding more investors for its cutting-edge technology, and Cohen sees the potential for the new company as being great. "When all is said and done," Cohen told a chamber of commerce gathering last Friday, "we can make new organs for your body. It sounds like science fiction, but this can actually happen."

The McLeod County Chronicle reports today in Pawlenty joins MiroMatrix's board of directors:

Miromatrix Medical Inc., a regenerative medicine company engaged in the development of commercial products based upon its perfusion decellularization/recellularization technology licensed from the University of Minnesota, announced today that Timothy Pawlenty has joined its board of directors.

The Miromatrix Medical technology has the potential to enable the creation of fully biological replacement organs for the human body. In addition to the Company's internal efforts focused on the development of its first product - a biomesh for hernia repair and breast reconstruction - scientists around the globe are working with the Company's technology and are taking the first steps toward the creation of human organs including the liver, lung, kidney, pancreas and heart.

Miromatrix has enjoyed significant support and cooperation from both the State of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota. The city of Glencoe recently joined this list of supporters by attracting the company to its industrial park, where Miromatrix will move into a new laboratory constructed to its specifications within the facility of one of its primary suppliers.

Following his election to the Miromatrix Board of Directors on Oct. 17, Pawlenty said, "I am extremely excited to join the board of a company that has the potential to improve human health in an historic way within its reach. In my view, Miromatrix likely will be Minnesota's next medical and business miracle."

The company's tissue regeneration technology grabbed headlines in the New York Times in January 2008, but pioneering scientist Doris Taylor was soon shown the door as the government subsidized Miromatrix moved her discovery toward the lucrative biomedical marketplace. Med City News reported in May:

Even as Cohen prepares to raise capital and figure out a new product, he has had to deal with some dirty laundry being aired involving the ouster of Taylor from the company’s board. Cohen declined to comment on the matter, but said that her absence will not hurt the company’s prospects and fundraising efforts. The co-inventor remains on the board.

Miromatrix has already raised $1.4 million in a seed round that included two $250,000 loans from the state of Minnesota. Impressed by Taylor’s success and attracted by the hope that Miromatrix might one day spawn a regenerative medicine industry in Minnesota, state officials provided those loans in 2010. However, the loans don’t place any limits on where the company needs to be based, Cohen said. The company needs to begin repaying those loans in 2015.

The company was seeking $5 million in new funding when the article was published--but Bluestem is guessing that Pawlenty, whose abortive presidential campaign is still drowning in debt, isn't on board to raise private sector money.

Given his campaign videos resemblance to sci-fi blockbusters like Independence Day, maybe he'll be in charge of producing promotional clips. Or maybe it's to snag more government subsidies.

Or maybe it's that dirty laundry? Perhaps Pawlenty's there to make sure the academic scientists don't get too biggety around the job creators. The Star Tribune reported in April's Lavish praise, then a quick ouster for star U scientist:

"Because I'm a scientist and because I'm curious, I asked a lot of questions, and that wasn't particularly well received," she said.

Taylor put her questions, including how the company was spending its limited cash, into writing for a July board meeting.

"We all had what I thought was an open, honest conversation, and I left,'' she said. . . .

Taylor's dismissal occurred during a period of financial instability, according to Peter Bianco, DEED's paid observer of Miromatrix. He wrote last September that the business was on the verge of collapse unless new money could be raised.

In response, DEED provided a second $250,000 loan to attract a matching amount of private money. The cash bought the company time to work on two key unfinished initiatives: introducing its first product, which Cohen wouldn't identify, and raising more money.

Bob Isaacson, who manages business subsidies for DEED, said the level of Taylor's involvement doesn't matter as long as the company has her technology and is moving forward. But experts say that university spinoffs are far more likely to flourish when the founding scientist stays on during the early years. . . .

The MNDaily reported on the July 2010 ouster here. Having underfunded the U for years, T-Paw has a record of putting those research geeks in their place.

Photograph: Nope, kids, MiroMatrix's research isn't like that.

Union, American Crystal Sugar to head back to the bargaining table on October 24

The Fargo Forum reported on Saturday that American Crystal, union to go back to negotiating table:

Negotiators representing American Crystal Sugar Co. and the company’s approximately 1,300 locked-out union workers have been called back to the negotiating table by the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Mediated talks between representatives for the nation’s largest sugar beet producer and the union will be held at an undisclosed time and location Oct. 24.

Union representatives said they had planned to contact Jeanne Frank, the federal mediator assigned to the case, this week to request another negotiating session. But according to local union officials, the mediator contacted the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union and the company Monday to schedule another round of negotiations, before the union contacted her.

With the lockout dragging on for more than 75 days, impacting productivity and efficiency at company plants and leaving union workers and their families without paychecks, both sides say they hope for a resolution to a costly labor impasse that has impacted local economies and divided communities and households. . . .

Read the rest at the Forum. The Grand Forks Herald takes a look at Drayton, ND, the smallest town with a ACS refinery in Main Street locked out by lockout:

KodaBank on Main Street has been busy refinancing car loans for locked-out union workers at American Crystal Sugar.

Bank President Pete Anderson anticipates he soon will see customers seeking restructuring of home mortgages, too.

“After 90 days without work, there will be some real hardships,” he said.

That’s especially true for workers at the Drayton and Hillsboro processing plants because North Dakota doesn’t award unemployment benefits as Minnesota does. Drayton likely is the hardest hit community proportionally of the five Red River Valley plant sites because its population of 800 is the smallest, about half of Hillsboro’s.

But the 53-year-old Anderson, raised in Drayton and a starting guard for the high school’s last appearance in the state Class B boys basketball tournament, sees a greater harm than lost wages and lower beet payments to growers.

“I’ve never seen anything here that has impacted relationships more than this has,” he said. “Some of these relationships may never be mended.”. .  .

It's not surprising that a community banker might value those relationships. Elsewhere in the Herald, business columnist Ralph Kingsbury observes the consequences of only valuing "comparative advantage" in North Dakota won’t be immune from globalization’s woes:

Globalization. That’s the way they describe it now. When the trend first started, it was called free trade. We were told — and most of us believed — that if only we would let production take place in countries with the greatest “comparative advantage,” we would all be better off. . . .

Globalization has not lived up to its promises. We all know the economies of the world are in precarious shape at best. Read what economists have to say about the problems we face today, and compare their thoughts to those of economists from earlier generations. It’s obvious that today’s economists don’t understand what they have created any better than did the economists at the beginning of the 1900s.

They really don’t seem to understand how to create or sustain demand — and demand is what it’s all about.

It is too early to tell if the anti-Wall Street demonstrations of the past few weeks have depth or staying power. But we can say that the demonstrators are there because of the failures of globalization.

One thing different this time is that many of the people demonstrating are college graduates. Many of them are not getting jobs because they have degrees in areas where the economy finds no value (or at least enough value for the number of graduates).

After all, how many masters of mass communications does an economy need?

How do we as Americans measure success? Certainly many in North Dakota have enjoyed success. But how can we look at the rest of the country and say not only, “We are OK,” but also “We will be all right”?

It's interesting to watch the growing meme that blames college graduate for picking "wrong" degrees for unemployment, rather than holding accountable those who made decisions in the financial sector. It's a blame-the-22-year-olds world. Bluestem suspects this line may become even more popular among our ALEC-fatten politicians than blaming the poor for the follies of the wealthy.

Photo: Locked out workers and vans carrying scabs.

DLOnline shares a modest proposal for jump starting economy: raise employees' salaries

Across America, the other ninety-nine percent of us who aren't reaping huge financial benefits from the current economic arrangements are wondering publicly what it's going to take to get those job creators to use the tax breaks they enjoy to--well--create some jobs.

The editors of the DLOnline came up with a suggestion the other day in Here’s a way to juice economy:

Here’s a radical idea — instead on waiting for Uncle Sam to ride to the rescue, American private enterprise could help jump-start the economy itself.

Large companies are sitting on a mountain of cash. According to USA Today, non-financial companies in the S&P 500 stock index have $963 billion in cash.

They should give their employees across-the-board 10 percent salary increases. That would go a long ways towards helping the average worker regain the spending power they had in 2008, before the great recession resulted in several years of frozen wages. . .

. . .Average wages, adjusted for inflation, have fallen, while employees have to pay an increasing portion of their health care and retirement costs. The upshot, according to USA Today, is that workers have less money to spend.

One wonders why those like Gretchen Hoffman who supposedly favor private sector solutions haven't thought of this one. Instead, she rants about how the public sector needs to cut wages and benefits because the job creators are paying less, and that locked out sugar workers should just take their lumps.

Maybe putting some of those bargeloads of cash into employees' pockets instead of crying poor mouth all the time might do the trick.

Hanging on to those dollars like those poor souls profiled on Hoarders because someday, some way, the cash might be used to create jobs illustrates the problem with hoarding outlined in the popular show's opening credits:

Compulsive hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things...

Photo: Too much to stash in a mattress.

Immigrants for Sale: Will Appleton's shuttered private prison open in human trafficking scheme?

Yesterday at the Minnesota Independent, editor Jon Collins broke the news that the Corrections Corporation of America's private prison in Appleton, shuttered for want of business from the state of Minnesota, may reopen.

In Private prison company’s growth went hand-in-hand with political influence, Collins reports:

It’s been almost two years since the privately-run prison in Appleton has held prisoners. But in early 2012, the prison’s owner, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), expects to fill Appleton’s Prairie Correctional Facility and another facility in Colorado with 3,256 inmates from California.

In the last ten years, the revenue of CCA, the country’s biggest private prison company, has almost doubled, according to their annual reports. Critics say that CCA’s success, and even the likely reopening of the prison in Appleton, stems from their use of lobbying and campaign donations to push through tougher crime laws and increase detainment of illegal immigrants.

“Prison privatization contracts are designed by policy makers. It’s important for these companies to have a political strategy to increase their market share,” Paul Ashton, author of a recent report on private prisons for the Justice Policy Institute, said in a conference call Wednesday. Private prison companies “game the system,” he said, by pushing to increase market share, which in the private prison business means putting more people in prison.

The Appleton facility is in DFLer Andrew Falk's House district and Gary Kubly's Senate District. When the state began transferring inmates from the private Prairie Correctional Facility to the less-costly public facility in Faribault, the Morris Sun reported that both legislators went to bat for the jobs the corporation provided:

“Devastating’’ is how Appleton Mayor Ron Ronning, himself an employee of the private prison, described the consequences to his community should the facility be closed or mothballed. The mayor was among well over 120 people, most of them employees of the facility, who packed the Appleton Civic Center on Friday morning for a town meeting hosted by State Sen. Gary Kubly, DFL-Granite Falls, and State Rep. Andrew Falk, DFL-Murdock.

Mayor Ronning said he feared that Appleton and the surrounding rural area could see a major exodus of jobs and suffer the economic strife that gripped it during the farm crisis of the 1980s, when businesses shuttered their windows and homes were left vacant.

The 1,600-bed Appleton facility is currently housing 542 inmates from Minnesota and another 525 from the state of Washington, according to Tim Wengler, its warden. The state of Washington has been slowly reducing its number of inmates.

So what's the problem with re-opening the prison and putting people in Appleton back to work? Back to the Collins' report. Go read about the influence of private money on public justice. And there's also this:

One thousand seven hundred fifty miles from L.A. to Appleton
CCA and other private prison companies are doing very well. In 2010, CCA saw total revenue of $1.67 billion, according to CCA’s annual report. But there is a human cost to the industry too.

Amy Gottlieb of the American Friends Service Committee told the Minnesota Independent that prisoners transferred to other states often face both emotional and legal hurdles.

“Ultimately, we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people around the country who are being locked up, held away from their families, in the immigration context are often unrepresented by council,” Gottlieb said. “People are profiting off of that.”

According to CCA’s website, one of the benefits of out-of-state inmate management is that the company will “[a]dhere to state-specific policies and procedures, as well as hundreds of standards set by the American Correctional Association and our company.”

But the fact that prisoners, including detained immigrants in some federal facilities, are being held in the less accountable private facilities is of concern to advocates like Gottlieb.

“We have seen over and over again that the private prison lobby is extremely powerful and they have deep connections to a lot of politicians and get a lot of federal contracts,” Gottlieb said. “That creates very serious concerns when what we are really talking about here are human rights and human rights violations.”

The Cuentame community told the story via the powerful video, "Immigrants for Sale":

I've praised both Kubly and Falk in the past on Bluestem, but won't hesitate to cry foul if either cheers this development by CCA.  Opening the prison for detainees would only feed the human supply chain for private profit that was at the core of SB1070--and copycat bills like ALEC zombie legislator Steve Drazkowski's own HB3830.

Rural Minnesota needs jobs, but profiting from human trafficking isn't the way to do it.

Update: Roy Pratt at City Pages reports Prairie Correctional Facility, private prison, not re-opening soon, says Rep. Andrew Falk.

Note: Currently in Minnesota, ICE detainees are held in county jails that the Department of Homeland Security contracts with for detention services.

Image: via Cuentame.

Making bacon: Hormel workers secure raises, higher retirement benefits, better health care

One shibboleth shared by conservative legislators (and the corporations that enable them) in attacks against the middle class is that wages and benefits must be gouged in order for American businesses to remain competitive in a global marketplace.

They then leverage that talking point in attacks on public sector unions--and in class warfare like the lockout American Crystal Sugar is conducting against union workers in the Red River Valley and elsewhere. 

An item in last week's Austin Herald, Hormel union OKs contract, suggests that wet blanket isn't being thrown everywhere on the American Dream:

United Food and Commercial Workers Union members at Hormel Foods Corp. voted to accept new four-year contracts for about 4,000 workers in Austin; Algona, Iowa; Fremont, Neb.; Beloit, Wis., and Atlanta, Ga.

The new collective bargaining deal will mean a base wage increase of $1.50, improvements in health care, improved retirement security and a pension increase.

“The strong contract that we secured with Hormel is a pretty big deal,” said Dick Schuster, a Hormel employee in Fremont, Neb. for 38 years, in a news release. “At a time when pensions are under attack nationwide, we were able to bargain for significant improvements to our retirement security. Our contract is a testament to why sticking together and speaking with one voice benefits all workers.” . . .

. . .“Our communities need good jobs with pay and benefits that can support a family,” said Vincent Perry, a four-year veteran at the Hormel plant in Algona, Iowa, in a news release. “Good union contracts like ours help build more stable and secure communities.”

Not all news coming from the livestock industry is good for rural communities. In an unrelated item, hog rustlers have been stealing pigs from barns in Southern Minnesota and Iowa. Higher hogs prices have made stealing truck loads of market-ready hogs worth the risk. The Des Moines Register reports in Pig thieves are getting 'greedier and more gutsy' in north Iowa, farmer says:

.. .Officials in both states so far are unsure where the hot hogs are being sold and say it's possible they're being trucked out of Iowa or Minnesota.

“It would take a well-organized operation to transport this many animals,” said Marc Chadderdon, an investigator with the Nicollet County sheriff’s office in St. Peter, Minn. “I think they go out and they’re doing their recon ahead of time, and they’re picking these barns for reasons.”

Reed Kuper figures there could be a ring of 10 to 20 thieves involved. He’d love to gather all of them in a room for questioning and play them against each other.

“Then everybody’s going to start squealing,” he said.

Photo: Oink! Union workers are bringing home the bacon for their communities, while hog rustlers are stealing it from farmers.

In Crookston, editor strives to renew the small dreams of America's job creators

With an increasingly bitter lockout of union sugar refinery workers dragging on in the Red River Valley, it's not surprising that a local editor is writing about the way Americans should respond to the needs of job creators.

The editor of the Crookston Times doesn't disappoint. Indeed, he seeks renewed vigor in reviving the interest of our nation's people formerly known as the super-rich in creating jobs.

In For just pennies a day, you, too, can help a 'job creator,' Mike Christopherson shares his dreams that some day, somehow, America's job creators will once more pin their hopes on creating jobs, rather than just swapping naked credit derivatives or acquiring another corporate jet. His editorial is based on this plea:

Christopherson concludes:

The truth is, many job creators couldn’t be less interested in creating jobs. More employees mean higher payroll costs, and higher payroll costs mean fewer limousine rides, golf junkets and cushy flights in their Gulf Stream jets.

If only the government would get out of the way, they say, with its nasty, meddlesome offers of tax rebates for employers who hire more employees and tax cuts made permanent for those whose great-grandchildren would never have to work a day in their life and still live a life of unfathomable comfort.

Feel free to dismiss this editorial as just more class warfare whining. Many will. But others know that you don’t have to be a socialist country to have reasonable socioeconomic class divisions that actually exist in more than theory, and actually encompass families that get by, get by easily, and do very well financially. The rich may not have have declared war on the less-than-rich, but they are winning this battle anyway, thanks to their bought-and-paid for congress and president.

Our nation continues to struggle economically, big-time, and yet a big chunk of people, these so-called job creators, have felt no pain whatsoever and, arguably, are doing better than ever. That’s worth a good whine, and then some.

Photo: Sally Struthers used to ask us to think of poor children. Now we're supposed to turn our pennies over to the mega rich.

Goodhue County research group to dig into effects of silica sand mining

The Red Wing Republican Eagle reports in Moratorium allows for a year of silica sand research:

Now that Goodhue County commissioners have unanimously approved a moratorium preventing silica sand mine operations in the county for up to a year, plans are in the works to develop a group that can dig deep into the effects of silica.

To make good use of the next year, Goodhue County Planning Supervisor Mike Wozniak said county staff and commissioners are going to develop a steering committee to thoroughly research certain issues of concern surrounding silica sand mines.

“The challenge we will have here is a lot was asked for, and how do we organize this into a manageable project?” Wozniak said Thursday.

. . .The committee will study a long list of things that could be effected by a potential mine, including water and air quality, roads and bridges, the county’s recreation and the area’s high level of tourism.

“Whoever gets appointed, it’ll be a pretty intense work group,” Goodhue County Land-use Management Director Lisa Hanni said. . . .

Read the rest at the Eagle. The Rochester Post Bulletin reports in Oil company disappointed in frac mining moratorium by Goodhue County:

An official with an oil exploration company that wanted to mine a special kind of sand in southeastern Minnesota expressed disappointment Wednesday about a vote by a county board for a one-year moratorium while it studies the potential environmental, health and financial impacts.

People filled a public hearing room in Red Wing for a meeting Tuesday night that lasted nearly three hours and included public comments from 20 people in support of the moratorium. No one spoke in opposition to the temporary ban, which Goodhue County Commissioner Jim Bryant said will give officials time to assemble an advisory board to study the impact. . . .

"We're disappointed that the county board decided to impose a moratorium but we intend to comply with all the regulations that exist in Goodhue County for the future work that we do," Chip Krohn, a geologist with the company [Windsor Energy Resources Inc./Windsor Permian], told The Associated Press on Wednesday. He said the company believes the county's existing regulations are "more than sufficient" for the board to decide whether to approve or reject permits.

Whatever the company is feeling, the local reaction is more positive. The Post Bulletin's editors concluded in Silica moratorium gives time to address concerns:

There's a lot to like about the one-year moratorium on silica sand mining in Goodhue County that was approved on Tuesday.

For starters, the vote by the county board was unanimous. Issues like this can lead to deep divides in communities and governing bodies, but that didn't happen in this case. Some commissioners might have some concerns about this decision, but they presented a united front when it was time to stand up and be counted, which will make things easier down the road.

We also like the fact that so many county residents are, for lack of a better term, "taking ownership" of this decision. . . .

Read the whole thing at the PB.

Photo: Aerial view of Hays Creek site.

Lewis & Clark water: a jobs project everyone loves but presidents can't seem to fund

While some free market purists might insist that all services, including water works, ought to be private, most Americans don't object to government involvement in supplying the basics, like security, fire protection and water.

Case in point: the Lewis and Clark Regional Water Project, which has enjoyed broad support from both liberals and conservatives, and the elected officials who represent them, in Southwest Minnesota, Eastern South Dakota and Northwest Iowa.

Geological conditions in that region result in truly nasty groundwater, which at its worst can sicken animals while smelling of rotten eggs.

Few projects will unite uber-conservative Iowa congressman Steve King and Minnesota First District moderate Tim Walz or  U.S. Senator Al Franken and Minnesota Rep. Joe Schomacker.  This one does.

In Attention Obama: Invest in Lewis & Clark, a column published by the Worthington Globe, Lewis & Clark's Troy Larson implores the President to fund the project:

President Obama will soon be releasing his proposed JOBS package to stimulate the economy, which I understand will include additional investment in critical infrastructure. Whether it is through this proposal or the FY12 budget, on behalf of the estimated 300,000 people in the tri-state region who will benefit from the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System when it is completed I want to take this opportunity to outline for the president why increased funding for Lewis & Clark is a perfect fit.

Lewis & Clark is not “new spending.” It was authorized by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in July 2000. Based on the federal government’s commitment, the states of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa, as well as the 20 member cities and rural water systems, have paid a combined $153.5 million — 99.7 percent of their cost share. By contrast the federal government has paid 51 percent of their cost share and has a remaining balance of $194.3 million.

The remaining cost share is indexed each year for inflation, which lately has been running $5 million to $7 million a year. The longer funding is delayed, the more expensive it becomes for the taxpayers and the longer it takes to realize the positive economic impacts from the water.

The non-federal funds have been spent or obligated toward current construction projects, so the future construction schedule is entirely dependent upon federal funding levels. . . 

. . .Not only would these projects create many good paying construction and manufacturing jobs on the front end, but more importantly it would create even more long-term jobs on the back end as the cities and rural water systems use the water to attract and expand businesses and industries. This has already happened in Hull, Iowa, where a cheese factory recently located there because of an “emergency connection” Lewis & Clark has between Sioux Center and Hull. The factory currently employs 127 people and processes 50 truckloads of milk each day from area dairies. They have plans to double production in the next one to two years, which would mean another 30 to 35 jobs. The factory, which has an enormous economic impact on the region, would not be in Hull today if not for the water being provided through the “emergency connection” and the promise of future water from the Missouri River aquifer. . . .

Former President George Bush famously praised the project, then failed to fund it, leaving congressional delegations from the three states to seek earmarks. With the change of administration, the project still lacks support from the White House, which is nearly fatal at this time, when congressional earmarks have been banned.

Fund this--and put construction workers on the job, as well as those whose jobs depend on a stable, useable water supply.

Related posts: Less than zero: Bush reneges on promises to Southwest Minnesota

Who will fight for Southwestern Minnesota's drinking water?

IA, SD, and MN congressional members call for Lewis & Clark Regional Water System funding

In the era of don't tell, don't ask for earmarks, Schomacker bill tells delegation to fund Lewis & Clark Rural Water project

Lewis & Clark Rural Water: Franken steps up

Franken salutes Lewis and Clark Rural Water Project as totally worthy

 

Goodhue County commissioners unanimously pass fracking sand mining moratorium

Last night, the Goodhue County board unanimously voted for a one-year moratorium on silica sand mining, the Red Wing Republican Eage reports in Silica sand mine moratorium unanimously approved:

Goodhue County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a moratorium preventing the issuance of any conditional use permits for silica sand mine operations in the county for up to a year.

Citizen group Save the Bluffs has been working toward getting the moratorium in place for months, and received letters of support from the cities of Red Wing and Lake City, as well as Florence, Hay Creek and Featherstone townships. . . .

The Star Tribune has more in Goodhue County to take a second look at sand mining:

Silica sand has become a valuable commodity in recent years because it is crucial to an oil- and gas-extraction technology called hydrofracking, which is transforming the domestic U.S. energy business.

Sand mining, however, has aroused local controversy in recent months as Red Wing-area residents organized around an effort for the moratorium. "We were elated and relieved" the board approved it, said Jody McIlrath, a member of the citizens group opposed to the mining operation."

. . . The debate in Goodhue County echoes those in small communities across Wisconsin and southern Minnesota as dozens of companies acquire land at high prices to supply drill rigs from New York to Texas.

The Star Tribune reports that mining on the Windsor Permian land in Goodhue County would be too small of a project to trigger state oversight. The local concerns that led to last night's decision:

Opponents say the county shouldn't permit a mining facility near residential communities. They fear damage to local streams and groundwater, and they say the open pit mine will be a blight on Red Wing's beautiful rolling landscape. They are also concerned about potential health effects. Dust from silica sand can cause a number of lung diseases, including cancer.

Nationally, the fracking process, rather than mining the sand itself, has gotten the lion's share of attention:

The hydrofracking process blasts a mixture of sand, water and chemicals into wells, creating fissures in the rock and freeing hard-to-reach pockets of oil and natural gas. Hydrofracking has raised major environmental questions and is under review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Wisconsin and Minnesota are among the few places in the country that can provide the perfectly round, inert silica sand used in the process; it comes from the 500-million-year-old Jordan sandstone formation that lies close to the surface in parts of both states.

Minnesota Public Radio reports in Goodhue County officials say time needed to study fracture mining:

A proposal for a one-year moratorium on fracture mining, often called fracking, was popular at a meeting Tuesday evening in Red Wing.

About 200 people filled the public hearing room for a meeting that lasted nearly three hours and included public comments from 20 people in support of the moratorium. No one spoke in opposition. . .

For Goodhue residents like Keith Fossen, the moratorium is a victory. Fossen lives near the property purchased by Windsor Permian and said he wants county commissioners to take their time to study the potential impacts of fracture mining, including water pollution and damages to bluffs and roads.

"The work has just begun," Fossen said. "Are we going to permit that kind of industrial mining in our county?

"If the answer is no, then how do we do that correctly? If the answer is yes, then how do we control it? How do we not let it impact the quality of our lives?"

Fossen, who lives 100 yards from the proposed site, took part in a Rochester Post Bulletin community dialogue on mining last week. Read about it here.

Photo: Aerial view of the potential site in Rock Creek Township, Goodhue County.

Related posts: Post Bulletin to kick up silica sand mining dialogue at Rochester library Tuesday night

Fracking update: Red Wing City Council unanimously backs silica mining moratorium

Fracking sand moratorium activists gain steam; Red Wing city commissions support yearlong ban

New Youtube: "High Price" of fracking sand extraction

Goodhue Co. fracking sand mining moratorium supporters mobilize at the township level

No fracking way: Wabasha County places temporary moratorium on silica sand mining

Updated: Windsor Permian consultant spotted at Goodhue County planning commission meeting

Video guy turned activist: Post Bulletin profiles Jim Tittle's work on fracking sand dispute

Connecting the dots on fracking sand: from Hay Creek Township's citizens to the New York Times

Note: The current iteration of this post reflects the correct spelling of Keith Fossen's name. He is incorrectly identified as "Keith Fossum" in PB's reporting.

"Our own army": Emmer and Davis play doctored Hoffa tape when kvetching about political tone

Over at City Pages, Mike Mullen sends up conservative carping about glitzkrieg in in a glorious post, Tom Emmer wants criminal prosecutions for glitter-bombing.

But the whinging about poor Nick Espinosa as an obscure subject of desire doesn't come until late in the podcast. When Bluestem was asked by friends to listen to the podcast, we noticed something even more striking about Emmer and Davis's lamentations about the tonal horrors of contemporary political discourse.

To prove their points--and then to bash unions while calling for right-to-work-legislation to be passed in Minnesota--Emmer and Davis played a doctored tape of a speech by International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Jim Hoffa. By leaving out references to voting, what was Hoffa's call to the ballot box in November 2012 becomes instead a call to violence.

Some tone, dudes.

The Real Hoffa Speech

Here's what Hoffa said (full transcript taken from the Detroit Free Press):

Here is a transcript of Hoffa’s entire speech on Monday:

“Are there any Teamsters in the house? This is Motown, but today, this is union town. We are union, we are workers. That is the message that we send today, and that is the message that we send to America.

There is a war on workers. You see it everywhere: It is in the unemployment, it is in the Tea Party, it is in the people that fight what we believe in. And we see the war in Wisconsin where they try to take collective bargaining from our public employees. We took two senate seats back, we are taking Wisconsin back.

That’s number one. Number two, in Ohio, we are fighting a battle there with regard to taking away collective bargaining. We will beat SB5. We’ve got a million signatures. We are going to win in Ohio — that is our number two. And in Michigan, they are thinking about right to work. It ain’t going to happen in Michigan. No way.

We have to keep an eye on the battle we face — a war on workers. And you see it everywhere there is the Tea Party. And you know there is only one way to beat and win that war.

The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what, they’ve got a war, they’ve got a war with us and there is only going to be one winner. It is going to be the workers of Michigan and America – we are going to win that war. All the way.

But it starts with your involvement, it starts with next November. We’ve got a bunch of people there that don’t’ want the president to succeed, and they are called the Tea Party – the people who don’t want him to do anything right and he is working hard for us.

President Obama is frustrated by what’s going on. Well, guess what, we’ve got the vote. And the answer to what we say is, we remember in November. We will beat the Tea Party and give this country back to workers and America. We can do it together.”

We’ve also got to talk about jobs. I get so tired about people who …(inaudible) these big corporations that send our jobs to Mexico, they send our jobs to China, and they’ve got the audacity to say ‘where are the jobs?’

Well I’ve got news for you. It’s time to bring those jobs back to America and bring America back to work. That’s what we’ve got to do.

We are going to hear from President Obama in a few minutes, and I am so glad that he has come to Michigan because this is where he sees the real America. He looks out on this army of people and you know what I say? President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. President Obama, we want one thing: Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs…(The crowd joins the chant.)

That’s what we are going to tell America…..When he sees what we are doing here, he will be inspired, but he needs help. And you know what? Everybody here has got a vote. If we go back, we keep the eye on the prize, lets take these sons-of-bitches out and give America back to America where we belong.”

Some excerpts from the speech are found at ABCNews.com [link here] in which it's obvious that he's talking about working people will "take these sons-of-bitches out" of office via petition and the ballot box.  [Update] Moreover, it's not unusual for campaigns to be compared to war; indeed conservative bagman Charles Koch recently compared the 2012 election to the Iraq War. [end update]

The Origin of the Smear

But the tape Emmer and Davis play doesn't contain any reference to voting. Instead, they're playing the audio of a Fox News segment described in Media Matter's Timeline Of A Right-Wing Media Smear: Hoffa's Call To Vote Became "A Call For Violence":

Fox Then Aired Clearly Edited Video Of Hoffa's Comments. Approximately 20 minutes after Henry's initial report on Hoffa's comments, Fox News' Megyn Kelly reported that Hoffa had issued "a pretty harsh attack on the tea party and Republicans. Here's some of that now." Fox News then aired a clearly edited version of Hoffa's speech:

HOFFA: We gotta keep an eye on the battle that we face: a war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there's only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what, they got a war, they got a war with us, and there's only gonna be one winner. It's gonna be the workers of Michigan and America. We're gonna win that war.

[...]

HOFFA: President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march.

[...]

HOFFA: Let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much! [Fox News, America Live, 9/5/11]

Blakeman: "I Think It's Thuggery At Its Best." After she aired the clearly edited version of Hoffa's remarks, Kelly asked Republican consultant Brad Blakeman to respond. He said, "I think it's thuggery at its best" and "these are the kind of remarks you'd expect out of Tony Soprano, not a union president." Blakeman further said: "When a union president says, 'let's take these son of a bitches out,' it usually means somebody's legs are going to get broken, somebody's going to disappear." [Fox News, America Live, 9/5/11] . . .

It's that sort of discourse Emmer and Davis decry; sadly, they don't seem to know what Hoffa really said. There's no evidence of due dilgence, just two guys repeating a something they heard because it supports a talking point the political agenda they support: passing right-to-work laws.

Bluestem thinks that the right-to-work champion American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its corporate sponsors scored some real value last month when it gave Tom Emmer a press pass and let him in to its annual convention for free. Who says you can't buy earned media like this for your agenda?

Mosh now

Willful misinterpretation of Hoffa or just convenient laziness in failing to do the due diligence of checking a tape for accuracy? Does it matter?

The blather about the doctored audio Emmer and Davis bloviate over brought to mind words about voting by  another famous Detroit native, pop star Eminem. In 2004, he urged Americans to good to their polling places, knowing that his call for a fight would be taken the wrong way. He wrote in Mosh:

I scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel and re-energize and rewind
I give sight to the blind, my insight through the mind
I exercise my right to express when I feel it's time
It's just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight, you take it as I'mma whip someone's ass
If you don't understand, don't even bother to ask

Just in case people were confused about what it means to speak and be heard in this country, the artist had a video made. It's dated and it's a different election, but by the end, it's clear what process Eminem is talking about. It's what Hoffa was talking about. Voting, dudes, but perhaps Emmer and Davis didn't hear that part.

American Crystal Sugar lockout update: rally in the TC; former executive sees both sides now

As America heads into the long Labor Day weekend, union workers at American Crystal Sugar remain locked out by management. Minnesotans can show soldiarity by joining a rally and action at Strom Engineering, which supplies scabs to replace those management won't let work.

Via the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation's Facebook page, the skinny on tomorrow monring's action:

American Crystal Sugar workers in Moorhead, East Grand Forks, Crookston, and Chaska, MN, Hillsboro and Drayton, ND, and Mason City, IA showed up to work last week only to find their company has locked them out. Instead of letting 1300 people continue working while a fair contract is negotiated, American Crystal Sugar executives have instead decided to hurt our communities with an unnecessary lockout.

Meanwhile, American Crystal S...ugar has been working with Strom Engineering to hire non-union replacement workers during the shutdown. It’s time to stand up against this injustice.

Join us on Thursday, September 1st from 8:00 to 10:00 AM for a rally and action at Strom Engineering to show solidarity with BCTGM workers.

WHO: Labor partners and allies who want to stand in solidarity with locked out BCTGM workers
WHAT: A rally and action to show solidarity for locked-out sugar workers
WHERE: Strom Engineering, Minnetonka (We’ll meet at the Park & Ride at I-394 and Hopkins Crossing at 8:00 AM and get rides over to the rally site)
WHEN: 8:00 to 10:00 AM on Thursday, September 1, 2011

Please RSVP to or contact Adam Robinson with questions: 651-252-1041 or adam@minneapolisunions.org.

Need motivation to get over there? Go read a fascinating article in the Grand Forks Herald, UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE: Former corporate exec sees different side as locked-out American Crystal worker. Staff writer Ryan Schuster reports:

Gary Watts spoke in a soft Southern drawl as he sat on the couch of his family’s modest rental duplex in a quiet Grand Forks neighborhood.

Watts said he doesn’t regret leaving his once-fulfilling corporate job at Home Depot or moving to Grand Forks to be closer to his wife’s ailing father two years ago.

“It was the best decision I could have ever made,” he said. “It was a real blessing in disguise. This is a good community with great people. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

He also said he has no regrets about his decision to leave a steady job at the J.R. Simplot Co. plant in Grand Forks a year ago to become a campaign worker with American Crystal Sugar Co.

Watts, 48, became a year-round employee of American Crystal’s East Grand Forks plant in July. Less than a month later, he was one of about 1,300 workers in union-represented positions who were locked out of American Crystal facilities by the company on Aug. 1.

Read the whole thing and learn the lessons Watts has experienced as a union member.  The Herald also published commentary by one of the farmers in the co-operative, VIEWPOINT: It’s all about risk, sugar beet farmer says. The article concludes:

. . .The newspapers have been full of stories lately about the labor situation affecting American Crystal and its union workers. Like every other farmer who owns stock in the company, I want to see this resolved fairly for the employees and the company alike.

We put a lot on the line when we bought stock in American Crystal and when we planted our crops this spring. As a farmer, I understand that those investments involve risk. In 2010, things lined up favorably for me and for other sugar beet farmers; in 2011, things will be much less in our favor.

We want a resolution to the labor contract that means that we can keep raising sugar beets when our crop or the sugar market turn against us. This means that we can continue to farm and that we can continue to provide jobs in our factories for our families, friends and neighbors.

Finally in the Grand Forks sister paper, the Fargo Forum, a look at the differences that North Dakota's right-to-work laws make for those locked out by management in American Crystal workers vs. Job Service North Dakota:

The labor dispute between American Crystal Sugar Co. and its unionized workers is at the one-month mark.

Early on in the lockout of the unionized American Crystal workers, it was determined by Job Service North Dakota that workers who are North Dakota residents do not qualify for unemployment insurance benefits. The reason cited is that North Dakota law does not allow a worker to receive unemployment benefits during a lockout situation. Job Service North Dakota administers the state’s unemployment compensation system.

On the other hand, American Crystal workers who are Minnesota residents are receiving unemployment benefits because the law in Minnesota allows workers who do qualify for unemployment benefits to receive them under a lockout.

Right to work

The situation with the locked-out American Crystal workers who live in North Dakota is pretty typical under a “Right to Work” or an ”Employment at Will” law. The employer in North Dakota almost always has the upper hand over an employee when it comes to an employee-employer dispute. . . .

Imagine what this would mean to a man like Gary Watts, who moved to Minnesota to help his wife care for her father, slipping away into Alzheimers. Minnesota politicians like ALEC members Gretchen Hoffman and Steve Drazkowski, both of whom favor the corporate bill factory's anti-worker agenda, would put Watts' family into a position where they'd have to take whatever management was offering.

Photo: Locked out workers.

Post Bulletin to kick up silica sand mining dialogue at Rochester library Tuesday night

The Rochester Post Bulletin will hold a community discussion about silica sand mining tomorrow night, it reports in P-B Dialogues digs into sand mining:

On Tuesday, the Post-Bulletin Dialogues community meeting will explore the issue and bring together people from around the area who have questions and answers, led by Managing Editor Jay Furst. The free, informal discussion is from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Rochester Public Library, which co-sponsors the Dialogues series.

More details at the paper. One point Bluestem will take issue with: a statement that silica sand mining has been going on elsewhere in the area with little protest.

That's true in some cases. Back in July, the Post Bulletin reported in Silica sand mine in Fillmore stirs no controversy that one small, 18-acre mine in Fillmore County was considered a good actor by the county planning and zoning administrator. He told the paper that the operator wasn't selling the black dirt stripped away to mine the sand and this practice will allow the mine operator to reclaim the pit more easily when it is played out.

Cross the Mississippi River, and you'll find the Concerned Citizens of Chippewa, who have been organizing around a sand plant in their town.  Jim Tittle's site features discussions with people living near other mines in Wisconsin. 

And in LeSueur County? There was a three-year fight over the Kasota Prairie before Unminn was forced to settle for a number of conditions in order to mine. And over in Ottawa, plans by the same company caused the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota to place historic buildings on its 10 most endangered properties of 1998:

Stone buildings of Ottawa Township, Ottawa Township, Le Sueur County

Built during the 1850s to 1870s, seven native limestone buildings - houses, churches and a town hall - form a charming remnant of a Minnesota River village that was once a center of stone quarrying. Their future may not be so charming: They stand on land that is a prime target for an advancing silica sand mining operation. (Linda Mack, "10 endangered properties for '98; The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota lists structures threatened by storms, demolition or neglect," Star Tribune, May 10, 1998, via Nexis All News, accessed August 29, 2011)

Despite this caveat, Bluestem encourages readers in Southeastern Minnesota to attend. The PB's Brett Boese has done some superlative coverage of the issue in Goodhue County and Furst has a style all his own.

Photo: Aerial view of Hay Creek Township site in Goodhue County.

Related posts: Fracking update: Red Wing City Council unanimously backs silica mining moratorium

Fracking sand moratorium activists gain steam; Red Wing city commissions support yearlong ban

New Youtube: "High Price" of fracking sand extraction

Goodhue Co. fracking sand mining moratorium supporters mobilize at the township level

No fracking way: Wabasha County places temporary moratorium on silica sand mining

Updated: Windsor Permian consultant spotted at Goodhue County planning commission meeting

Video guy turned activist: Post Bulletin profiles Jim Tittle's work on fracking sand dispute

Connecting the dots on fracking sand: from Hay Creek Township's citizens to the New York Times

ACS lockout update: mediator calls union, management back to table; Thur. meeting set

The Grand Forks Herald and other outlets are reporting that federal mediator Jeanne Frank has called unon representatives and management back to the bargaining table. The two sides will meet tomorrow.

Ryan Schuster writes in American Crystal, union will resume talks Thursday:

An end could finally be in sight to the lockout of American Crystal Sugar Co. workers at Red River Valley plants.

A union spokesperson confirmed this afternoon that American Crystal Sugar and representatives for the company’s 1,300 union-represented employees will resume negotiations on a new contract Thursday.

Mark Froemke, a representative for the union, said union and company officials will meet with the federal mediator assigned to the case on Thursday. He declined to disclose the location and time of the meeting. . . .

The negotiations potentially could end the lockout, which has stretched on for 24 days.

Minnesota Public Radio reports in American Crystal, union negotiators to meet Thursday:

. . .A union official says he doesn't expect a quick resolution, but the meeting is a first step in restarting negotiations.

About 1,300 workers have been off the job at five Crystal plants in Minnesota and North Dakota. There are also union workers at sugar shipping and storage facilities in Chaska and in Iowa.

They rejected a contract offer over concerns about health care costs and job security. Since the vote, replacement workers have been on the job, packaging and shipping sugar. Full-scale sugar beet harvest begins in early October. . . .

The GF Herald posted Congressman Collin Peterson's reaction in Crystal workers may be offering changes:

“What we’ve been encouraging is that they get back to the table and get this stuff worked out,” Peterson says, of his own efforts. He says nothing could get resolved if the two sides weren’t talking.

Peterson says he’s been talking – company board members, union people and management – to encourage a resolution. Some of those conversations were as late as Aug. 23.

Peterson says it is difficult for outsiders to really know the key issues in the matter. “From what I can tell is the issue is on management have control over who gets what job, and being able to hire outside people,” he says. He had encouraged the union to come up some language that allows management its needed flexibility but also “tighten” what the union is concerned about.

He says the company has claimed it takes too long – as many as two weeks – to make decisions because of needed union negotiations. The union, on the other hand, says 95 percent of the issues are resolved “in 15 minutes,” Peterson says, acknowledging it is difficult to judge. He said he thought the union was planning to “come forward with some changes” as of today morning. He didn’t know whether this had an impact on the Aug. 25 talks.

Peterson, who is the ranking member of the agriculture committee and a key defender of policies beneficial to beet sugar producers and processors, said some growers had been calling him “worried this (labor issue) would jeopardize authorization of the farm bill,” which is coming up in 2012. “Nothing like that has happened so far,” Peterson says. “As long as we get this resolved in the next month or two I don’t think that’ll be a problem. If it drags on into the winter, it could be a problem.”

Photo: One big pile of beets.

 

ACS lockout update: BEET the Lockout initiative launched for school supplies; more news

As the lockout of union workers continues, families are feeling the pinch as school children get ready to return to the classroom. The Load the Truck/BEET the Lockout initiative has been created to help them out.

Meanwhile, the Crookston City Council is writing a letter to, the head of the union writes, and . In the Cities, the Star Tribune reports that the biggest test of management's wager  has yet to come, as the sugar beet harvest has yet to begin.

The Crookston Times reports in Load the Truck/BEET the Lockout initiative launched:

Organizers of Load the Truck/BEET the Lockout said many families in the area are affected by the American Crystal Lockout. Since school is right around the corner, some are having a hard time trying to get school supplies for their children. The community can help by donating money or any type of school supplies (i.e. backpacks, pencils, pens, erasers, two pocket folders, crayons, school box, glue, scissors).

Starting today, there will be a Load the Truck booth next to the local union headquarters on Main Street (former Rock's Jewelry building) where donations can be brought. Several businesses in Crookston will also have donation jars.

There will also be a Picnic in the Park fundraiser on Saturday, Aug. 27, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Highland Complex, with all proceeds going toward Load the Truck/BEET the Lockout. For $1.50 you'll a hot dog, chips, drink and a cookie.

Bluestem has contacted friends in the labor movemnt to see if there's a way that people who live outside of the Valley can help out.

Elsewhere in the Times, City Editor Natalie Ostgaard reports in City open to writing simple, impartial letter on Crystal situation:

Although the Crookston City Council stopped short of fully supporting a request to send out letters urging both sides to resolve the American Crystal Sugar labor dispute, council members and Mayor Dave Genereux did agree that he would draft and sign a simple, impartial letter to the union and company management.

A large group of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers union members employed by American Crystal attended the council's Monday night meeting to ask – like they're doing in other cities in which they have a strong presence – that the council send a letter to both company management and the union urging both sides to get back to the negotiating table and resolve their differences so the employees can get back to work. The council agreed to take the matter under advisement but made no decision at the time.

After discussing it during the Administrative Committee meeting that followed, however, the consensus was to have Genereux alone sign the letter, modeled after the one signed by East Grand Forks Council members. There was some concern about treading into territory that some might construe as biased.

Read the article at the Times. Ryan Schuster at the Grand Forks Herald reports in Union leader sends letter to Crystal president:

The international president of the union that represents the 1,300 locked out American Crystal Sugar Co. employees wrote a sternly-worded letter to American Crystal’s president last week, imploring him to end the lockout and resume negotiations with the union.

In a letter dated Aug. 18 and addressed to American Crystal president and CEO Dave Berg, Frank Hurt, the international president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, asked Berg to “immediately end the company’s strike against your workers and meet with their union representatives to negotiate, in good faith, a fair and equitable collective bargaining agreement.” . . .

“I have rarely seen a company act as boldly and unfairly against its workers as American Crystal Sugar,” Hurt wrote in the letter. “Our members have devoted their professional careers to the success of your company and for that loyalty they have had their lives harshly thrown in to turmoil, uncertainty and hardship.” . . .

Brian Ingulsrud, American Crystal’s vice president for administration, said the company had no response to Hurt’s letter. Ingulsrud said the letter won’t change the company’s course in its dealings with the union.

“There really isn’t anything new to report,” Ingulsrud said.

Read the entire article at the Herald. On the paper's oped pages, Gerald Larson writes in a letter to the editor, Cut American Crystal execs’ pay while boosting workers’:

I am a concerned resident of North Dakota in no way associated with Crystal Sugar or the employees’ union.

If the salary figures stated by Scott Ripplinger in his recent column are correct, I think the Crystal Sugar board should offer an explanation to the public as well as to the locked-out employee as to why it is necessary to cut employee benefits when the board is able to increase executive salaries at a ridiculous rate (“Crystal worker calls contract sour, not sweet,” Page A4, Aug. 16).

 

For example, I’m referring to Dave Berg’s salary increase of more than $1 million in a three-year period to a total salary of nearly $2 million. . . .

Check out his conclusion at the paper.

Steve Share of the Minneapolis Labor Review reports via the Twin Cities Daily Planet that Sugar lock-out includes distribution facility in Chaska, frustrated workers. The 19 Chaska workers are a close-knit group:

"It's like a small little family," Lahr said. "They're hunting and fishing together... Most of us are long term employees," he said, with 15-38 years on the job (for Lahr, 36-1/2 years). They know the names of each other's kids. "We've been here a long time."

Read the long piece at the TCDP. The Star Tribune's Mike Hughlett reports in Beet harvest will test American Crystal Sugar's lockout strategy:

It's been three weeks since American Crystal Sugar locked out 1,300 workers in a contract dispute, but the company's biggest economic test of the lockout is still to come.

Weather-related crop setbacks have delayed the harvest, so American Crystal's five Red River Valley plants - while teeming with replacement workers - aren't yet actually processing beets.

When the Moorhead-based company starts up those factories, it will be relying on a relatively inexperienced workforce, upping the risk of production shortcomings, industrial relations experts say.

Ultimately, that risk is borne by the 2,800 growers who own American Crystal Sugar, a cooperative. Their income is partly determined by how efficiently the lumpy beige roots from their fields are transformed into fine white sugar. . . .

Check out the story at the Strib. The Grand Forks paper notes that the run-up to the harvest will be underway in the beginning of next month in Crystal to begin pre-pile lift Sept. 6:

American Crystal Sugar Co. has announced to shareholders that they’ll start pre-pile harvest on Sept. 6 with beet slicing, or processing starting in all of its five factories. In the southern Red River Valley, Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative at Wahpeton will start harvest Sept. 21-22, and will start slicing at its single factory on Sept. 23.

Dan Bernhardson, the farmer-owned co-op’s director of agriculture, said the later-than-normal start is due to lower yield projections. The current projection ranges from 20 tons to 22 tons per acre, which would be the lowest in the past five years. The lowest during that period was 22.3 tons in 2009, and the five-year average is 24.5 tons per acre.

. . .Bernhardson earlier had said recent crop sampling data would likely be a topic for the Aug. 24 regular board of directors’ meeting that is reportedly scheduled in Grand Forks, starting in the morning. The so-called full-scale, 24-hour harvest will start about Oct. 1.

How will the lockout affect the harvest? The Herald reports:

It is unclear whether Crystal’s labor issues will be a part of the board meeting. The board has a sub-committee that is regularly briefed in detail on the labor impasse, which has resulted in a lock-out of 1,300 union workers. It isn’t clear a later processing start will play any part in the settlement of the dispute.

Photo: Sugar workers and their allies march on the bridge between Moorhead and Fargo.

The Emo Senator: E-verify for thee, but not for me

Emo Senator fans will be relieved to learn that Senator Mike Parry's amnesia is over, since he has once again learned that he owns a Godfather's Pizza. Bluestem, your humble narrator, hopes that this means he won't be asking for a salary increase in our next season at the legislature.

Readers may remember from the June episode, Suddenly socialist Mike Parry demands pay according to his needs, that Senator Parry suffered a severe lapse of memory, causing him to believe that his legislative salary was his only source of income, along with the per diems he maxed out on.

Later, during the shutdown, he developed a twitter rivalry with a laid-off state employee who in better times trimmed the lawn at the governor's residence, under the mistaken belief that the man still riding the gubernatorial mower.  Still, The Emo Senator was beginning to remember his role in the Waseca community as a "job creator," as fans learned in the installment, Emo senator Mike Parry pats self on back for compassion, reveals another income source.

As we tune in today, Senator Parry is waxing lyrical to Minnesota Public Radio (via the Owatonna People's Press article Parry revives E-verify policy) about the close bonds shared at the pizza franchise he owns:

Parry, who owns a Godfather’s Pizza franchise in Waseca, doesn’t use E-Verify at his business. He said he’s not opposed to using E-Verify, but does not think it necessary for his shop.

“All of my employees at this point in time are pretty much high school students,” he said. “We know the families, and they’ve been living in town for quite a few years, and we know the parents and everything so we just haven’t used the E-Verify on that.”

And what is this E-Verify that Parry doesn't need at Waseca's version of Cheers, where everybody knows your name--and your parents too?

The MPR/OPP piece explains:

A contentious piece of immigration policy made it into the final budget deal approved last month. E-Verify is back, but with a twist.

The state is again requiring its big contractors to verify the legal status of their employees using a federal database run by the Department of Homeland Security. Former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty first mandated E-Verify for large government contractors through an executive order in 2008. At that time, he also ordered the state to run its own new hires through E-Verify.

Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, let the requirements lapse last April.

This time, the new law inserted into the budget deal applies only to businesses.

The new law was sponsored by Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, who says he pushed for its return because he believes it protects Minnesotans from losing jobs to unauthorized workers.

“We need to know that those working in our businesses, throughout not only the state but the nation, are people who are legally here in the United States,” Parry said. “So it was put into the bill, and of course this time the governor passed it into law.”

Not that Parry's own business needs it under the  law.  Those high school students aren't baking up that many pizzas for the State of Minnesota to trip the $50,000 threshold.

Still, Parry's newest antagonist, Minneapolis attorney DeAnne Hilgers, notes that E-verify costs other companies money:

Companies providing more than $50,000 worth of services to the state must enroll in E-Verify to check the work status of new hires. Hilgers is concerned the new requirement, which is already in effect, will catch companies unaware.

“It was not a complete surprise that E-verify was back in play, but I did not expect it to come in the middle of the night with no discussion and no opportunity,” she said.

Hilgers said E-Verify costs companies extra time and money beyond what companies are already doing to ensure compliance with immigration law.

Hilgers also found it noteworthy that Pawlenty’s executive order required the state to run its own new hires through E-Verify, but the new law applies only to companies doing business with the state.

“Why is it OK for the state to subject contractors to a requirement aimed at bringing employers into compliance, when an employer as large as the state of Minnesota itself is not subject to the same requirement?” she asked.

Always the watchdog for job creators, the guardian of small business against government regulation, the Emo Senator has no idea how much using E-verify costs those people closest to his heart:

Parry disagrees with Hilgers that E-Verify poses a burden to companies. He couldn’t estimate how much it costs companies to comply, but said he has called business leaders and asked them for their thoughts.

Fortunately, the narrator's quick googling fingers have discovered this Infographic: The Costs of E-Verify: A Closer Look at the Government's Work Authorization System, by Center for American Progress Immigration Policy Analyst Philip E. Wolgin. Wolgin shares some information that might give the financially struggling Emo Senator pause--or explain why this staunch defender of requiring others to use E-verify doesn't actually use it himself.  

The Analyst writes:

This infographic explains the costs of E-Verify, the government’s Internet-based work authorization system. It highlights the system’s known costs, such as lost tax revenue and monetary burdens on small businesses, and estimates the costs of additional fiscal burdens—to individuals verified through the system, to employers utilizing the system, and to the federal government in running the system—absent from much of the dialogue. E-Verify expands the size of government while decreasing revenue, places a crushing burden on small businesses, and imposes a “jobs tax” on ordinary Americans.

So urgent is the Emo Senator's need (we worry about a relapse of that amnesia) that Bluestem has swiped the infographic and included it in at the top of this episode, so that Parry and all our fans can discover for themselves how much this policy costs individuals, businesses and the federal government.

Is it worth that cost? Apparently not to the Emo Senator, who doesn't pay to use it at his own business. Should E-verify be extended to all businesses, or does our sensitive hero have a means by which he can discern which small business owners are like himself and will only hire people they already know?

Graphics: ; Infographic: The Costs of E-Verify: A Closer Look at the Government's Work Authorization System from the Center for American Progress (above). The Emo Senator (Belle of Southern Minnesota) by Tild (below)

Earlier episodes of The Emo Senator are found below the fold.

American Crystal Sugar lockout update: sympathy for workers, sympathy for the devil

The lockout of union works at American Crystal Sugar refineries in northwestern Minnesota, while union and management supporters continue their tussling in area newspapers' oped sections.

First, news coverage. In LIFE ON THE PICKET LINE: American Crystal workers keep the faith, Grand Forks Herald business writer Ryan Schuster reports:

. . .“We’re out here 24 hours a day, seven days a week on four-hour shifts,” said locked-out union worker Scott Ripplinger as he picketed outside the American Crystal Sugar Co. plant in East Grand Forks last week. “We’d rather be working. This isn’t about if we want to work or not. We want to work. They won’t let us. We’re locked out.”

The locked-out workers still show up to the plants where they once worked. Unable to return to work, they instead take turns manning picket lines set up outside the gates and watch as replacement workers contracted by the company come and go.

But three weeks into a lockout initiated by company management after union members overwhelmingly rejected the company’s last contract offer, picketing union workers say they are united and remain undaunted.

“I don’t mind being out here,” said Dave Bakke, who has worked at the company’s East Grand Forks plant for nearly 32 years as he picketed in front of the plant this week. “I’m not only out here for myself, I’m out here for everybody else, too.” . . .

Read the rest at the Herald. The article appears in the Fargo Forum as American Crystal workers hold line.

In related news, at WDAY, Charley Johnson reports in No Progress As ACS Lockout Nears 3 Weeks:

American Crystal Sugar union workers have been locked out of their jobs for almost three weeks and Crystal vice president Brian Ingulsrud says the company is standing by its final offer, and hopes the union will reconsider and take another vote on the proposal. . . .

. . .Union sticking points are the company's desire to have them pay a portion of the health insurance premium, and language in the proposed contract that the union says would make it easier for Crystal to out-source some jobs to non-union workers.

Workday Minnesota reports that the community continues to rally around the workers in Pressure grows on  sugar company to end lockout:

EAST GRAND FORKS - The City Council here voted unanimously Wednesday to send a letter urging American Crystal Sugar to return to negotiations with its locked-out workers. "The council recognizes the importance of the facility and the people who work there to our city," city administrator Scott Huizena said. "Obviously, it's a very important part of our economy in East Grand Forks."

The council took the vote after a presentation by AFL-CIO spokesman Mark Froemke who, a night earlier, had asked the City Council in Grand Forks, N.D., to do the same thing. The Grand Forks council did not take an official position but Froemke said several of its members told him they would individually write letters to the company urging it to end the lockout. . . .

ACS lockout update: IBT big rig rolls into Moorhead; editor sees end of sugar program

Locked out American Crystal Sugar refinery workers continue to picket, and KFGO reports that they received a rolling show of solidarity from Teamsters.

From the article:

Teamsters Local 120 spokesman Donny Walz says the teamsters want to send a message that they fully support the locked-out workers. Union workers at American Crystal have been locked-out since August First. The employees say they want to go back to work, but the company won’t allow them without a formal wage and benefits agreement. 

 

A union representative says there are no signs that the lockout will end anytime soon.

Mike Jacobs, editor and publisher of the Grand Forks Herald, suspects that Crystal’s strategy means danger for sugar program. He lays out the case:

American Crystal Sugar executives must be figuring that the U.S. sugar program is going to end.

That’s the only way to explain their current labor strategy.

The strategy is to reduce costs by cutting jobs. The company has chosen tough tactics, including a lockout of its 1,300 union workers.

All of this adds another element of danger to the sugar program, which is already at risk in Congress.

Crystal’s calculation is both financial and political.

If the sugar program ends, imports of sugar will rise. The price of sugar will go down. American sugar refiners will survive only by becoming more competitive. That means driving down costs. Labor is a very big cost, and Crystal saw the expiration of its labor contract as a way to reduce the work force.

This strategy makes sense for Crystal executives, who work for the growers who own the cooperative. . .

Read the rest. Jacobs concludes that if the sugar program ends, communities in the Red River Valley will take huge hits, but the co-operative and its refineries will survive. It's not a heartening vision and Jacobs doesn't write it as one.

In an earlier letter to the editor, American Crystal lockout a betrayal, pure and simple, Megan Villarreal speaks to the human cost of the strategy:

Everyone knows someone who works at American Crystal Sugar. These are our neighbors, friends and relatives. My grandfather and father-in-law both retired from Crystal Sugar, while my husband and uncle currently are locked out.

It’s very difficult to plan a family get-together when two members of your family work two different shifts, but it has been this way as long as I can remember. We have made it work because Crystal Sugar was a good place to work.

Every dollar made by a Crystal Sugar employee stays in our community.

These dollars help pay for our schools and churches, not to mention huge contributions to organizations such as United Way. . . .

Read the rest at the Herald.