After a more-than-full day of talks Monday, negotiations will continue Tuesday in Fargo with American Crystal Sugar Co., said John Riskey, a leader of union workers at Crystal's processing plants.
On Monday, Riskey and other leaders of the Baker, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union met together at 7 a.m., in Fargo, he said.
At 9 a.m., they met with a federal negotiator.
By late morning, union officials, with the negotiator, were in talks with management of American Crystal that went on and off all day until nearly 9 p.m., said Riskey, who is president and business manager of the union local representing workers at the East Grand Forks, Moorhead and Drayton, N.D., factories. Crystal also has plants in Crookston and Hillsboro, N.D.
Riskey said he could not comment on the substance of Monday's talks.
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But last week he said the union was bent on offering "significant movement" in its proposals.
A call to Brian Ingulsrud, Crystal's vice president in charge of the negotiations, wasn't returned Monday night.
The talks come nearly three months after about 1,300 union workers were locked out of American Crystal's five factories in the Red River Valley, as well as two smaller facilities in the Twin Cities and Iowa over failure to agree on a new contract by Aug. 1.
Replacement workers brought in by the company through an employment firm in the Twin Cities continue to man the plants as the stockpiling of the new crop of sugar beets was virtually completed Monday.
Harvest is all but complete, with 98 percent of the beet crop lifted and hauled to stock piles, a company spokesman said Monday.
But the campaign to process the beets into sugar will continue into May.
Talks between the union and Crystal, including the negotiator, on Aug. 25 in Fargo led to no agreement.
Monday's talks were the first since then, and also held in Fargo and will continue Tuesday.
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Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237; (800) 477-6572, ext. 237; or send email to slee@gfherald.com .
