Multiple fires at American Crystal Sugar plants are raising questions about safety while replacement workers are staffing the plants during the lockout of the company's union workers:
This is the second fire at Moorhead's plant since the lockout began. In the past five years, there has only been one other fire that's required a fire department response.
The Washington Independent reports:
Other fires at American Crystal Sugar plants in Minnesota and North Dakota were reported in early September, with Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union local President John Riskey then saying that “when you put poorly trained replacement workers into these facilities, preventable accidents can and will happen.”
The replacement workers at American Crystal Sugar plants are provided by Minnetonka’s Strom Engineering, which specializes in supporting company labor actions like lockouts and strikes.
Strom Engineering doesn’t have a sparkling safety history, according to earlier Minnesota Independent reporting. In 2006, a Strom replacement worker was killed in an accident in an Alaska AK Steel factory. OSHA initially cited AK Steel for a serious violation of safety in the accident. During that same lockout, three other replacement workers were injured in an explosion. Former Strom workers also alleged unsafe conditions in a recent Star Tribune article.
The union and company have been in mediation and a proposal is expected to come to a vote next week.