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Lockouts gain momentum as Minnesota employers seek upper hand

MinnPost photo by Craig Lassig



The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra musicians unanimously rejected a contract offer Wednesday, so management on Thursday canceled concerts through the end of the year. There aren’t any signs that the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra or Minnesota Orchestra are close to ending their labor-management disputes.


“We are in a period where we are moving towards an increased level of lockouts,” John Budd, a University of Minnesota professor of work and organizations, said in a MinnPost interview.

“There is the potential for this to be the start of a significant trend,” Budd said, citing the willingness of some employers to use the lockout strategy in challenging economic times.

Controlling timing


“With a lockout, management is in control of the timing of the dispute,” Budd said, which reduces labor’s leverage.


Those numbers are important because the vast majority of Americans don’t think about private sector unions on a regular basis, although Budd pointed out that conservative activists have spent a lot of time attacking public sector unions.

We’ve watched Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and public sector employees engage in intense combat across the border, and we’ve seen Republican Minnesota legislators decrying the amount of tax dollars going to fund public employee salaries.

But the region’s long labor lockout of 1,300 American Crystal workers has largely gone unnoticed by most Minnesotans, particularly those living in the Twin Cities.

It hasn’t been on people’s radar screens because they don’t see it affecting their lives. Most of the sugar sold by American Crystal is not marketed under the American Crystal brand, so a recent union effort to wage a consumer boycott likely will have a limited impact on the company’s financial standing.


Smaller work groups


While most people don’t pay much attention to labor disputes in factories and processing plants such as American Crystal, the lockouts in the entertainment sphere are capturing their interest.

Fans are upset they can’t watch Wild hockey and arts patrons are unhappy they can’t go to concerts. These lockouts affect their personal lives.


The American Crystal workers aren’t in the entertainment industry, so they may be locked out for another long winter.

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Comments (18)

  1. Submitted by James Hamilton on 11/02/2012 - 10:35 am.

    Two Minnesota lockouts


  2. Submitted by Gerald Abrahamson on 11/02/2012 - 10:47 am.

    Important point not mentioned–replacement workers.

    The screaming would be very clear if all the beet farmers were forced to eat the losses because they could not sell anything they grew unless they switched to corn or another grown commodity. Then they would not need anyone to process anything. But they just hire replacement workers–and continue to make a profit processing their sugar beets.

  3. Submitted by mark wallek on 11/02/2012 - 11:05 am.

    A real Problem.

    The demise of unions is nothing less than tragic. At the same time, unions can attribute their current position to the systemic complacency and corruption that are hallmarks of the union heyday. The modern marketing machine has perpetuated this image beyond it’s feasibility, but then the marketing machine is like that lady who sells her services to the highest bidder with no allegiance to anything other than the payola. The unions are responsible for thier current situation, but americans have lost sight of their necessary contribution to livability. Think these few lockouts are going to be it? No way. Think that the members of the orchestra need to make more than a survival level wage? The business of sport is just too rotten to touch, but the dynamics are the same. I just don’t care if six and seven figure folks get more or not. Realistically, they have more than enough. With all the manufacturing we’ve farmed out to save a dollar for the corps, we have concerns now that defense is compromised due to shoddy, or even sabotaged foreign made components. These parts were manufactured by non union workers who could be wearing diapers rather than being given breaks.There is no doubt that the middle class was far far better off in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, and that corps and banks excesses were held in check by regulations that had teeth. A barber could support a family of six on a barbers salary, and a dollar had value. Today, life is cheap and discardable. “Money products” promise wealth without effort. And the country clearly is all the worse off for it. Unions may be dying like the vets of WWII, and once gone, like the vets, nobody alive will be able to remember the worthwhile contribution made. We’ll just have the spin doctors to write history, the way the corps want it. So tragic.

    • Submitted by Thierry Carlson on 11/02/2012 - 08:46 pm.

      We will remember


  4. Submitted by Jerilyn Jackson on 11/02/2012 - 02:48 pm.

    I think it’s a bit much to put all the blame for the union’s demise on their own complacency and corruption. A priority of the corporate world has long been to get rid of the union powers that were established in the New Deal. They have been orchestrating a systematic attack on unions ever since. As with many other issues, their well-funded ability to sway public opinion has played a huge part in getting their way with collective bargaining, etc. Sadly, it may take the deterioration of worker’s rights to the point of revolution. History repeating itself once again.

    • Submitted by mark wallek on 11/04/2012 - 04:49 pm.

      Lost faith


  5. Submitted by Frank Phelan on 11/02/2012 - 09:46 pm.

    Buy A Ticket To See Ziggy?

    How many people buy tickets to see billionaire sports owners? I’m pretty sure people want to see people who are the top performers, at the Ordway or the socialist, tax-payer built Metrodome or Xcel. Professional sports teams rarely declare bankruptcy. After the last NHL lockout Wild ticket prices didn’t decline a penny. Where did the labor savings go? This is the 3rd or 4th lock out in a row for the NHL. Most pro athletes don’t get the huge multi-year $100 million contracts. Most careers are just a few years. They aren’t on food stamps, but the owners (whose profits are private and expenses are socialized) are light years ahead financially. What would your reaction be if your employer tried to cut your wages by 5% every 3 or 4 years?

    A career can end on any play, even during a practice. Owners make millions year in and year out. They aren’t fighting to lower your ticket prices. They just want more.

  6. Submitted by peter delong on 11/02/2012 - 11:20 pm.

    if the business owners and corporate elite can havethe right to

    organizing instituional response to labor costs, laborers must have the same right to organize. Unions are organization of of laborers bonded together to increase their power in order to compete in the free marketof corporatized power.Yes Sean hannity is right this is MArxism. Union of the mid 20th century beurcratized to compete with the oligarchies and monoploies; they adopted the insitutional strucutres of neo-liberal corporate capitalist growth technocrats (think “John Gault”) and sold out most notably in the excessof those corrupt labor unions in Chcago and other rust belt boom towns. But the Teamsters are not Union heroes… They are Union spolied brats and we need unions of consious workers to remember that life is more than about what you do its more about who you are.

    Lockouts are as wrong as Walmart’s right to not pay a air wage is wrong for Amercian Family Values.

  7. Submitted by John D Sens on 11/03/2012 - 07:54 am.

    Current unemployment figures count


  8. Submitted by Eric Carrig on 11/04/2012 - 07:51 pm.

    How to organize

    The point about being to use the internet to help organize is a god one. If it was easy to pick the issues that matter most — organizing labor for example — develop VIABLE solutions to challenges (like lack of bargaining power), vote for the strategies we prefer, and use the process to hold representatives accountable for implementing winning solutions, perhaps a new labor dynamic could emerge. @10,, deserves a look. It could be the first step.

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