GRAND FORKS -- American Crystal Sugar once was a cherished part of our communities. It provided good jobs to working men and women in our small towns. It gave generous donations for community events, special fundraisers and sponsorship of amateur athletic teams.
Today, American Crystal is no different than the rest of the Wall Street robber barons. The company rarely provides any funding for the events that it supported in the past. It has tried to get out of its tax responsibilities, and if it had succeeded, the result would have devastated small communities.
The company now wants to do away with the good jobs it provided for many years, again devastating small communities.
American Crystal no longer is the good neighbor and cherished member of our community.
American Crystal's managers must have come from the banks that created this country's financial meltdown.
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Nothing but pure greed could be the reason they will not negotiate in good faith to achieve a fair contract.
Given the salaries the company's officers get and the size of those officers' raises, it would only be fair for American Crystal to make a decent offer to the men and women who work in the company's factories and to share the wealth with the people who made Crystal a nationally respected supplier of sugar.
These men and women are the lifeblood of our communities, volunteering and spending the money they make right here at home in our small towns.
David Harney
