Locked-out workers from American Crystal Sugar and Cooper Tire will begin a 1,000-mile Journey for Justice tomorrow from Fargo, N.D., to Findlay, Ohio. The journey will highlight the corporate greed that marks their lockouts, and the growing drive by corporate CEOs to drive down wages and benefits to pad their own pockets.

Amy Masciola, a union campaign consultant, sends us this.

More than six months ago, American Crystal Sugar Co. locked out more than 1,300 sugar beet workers in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. Two months ago, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. locked out more than 1,000 workers in Findlay, Ohio. Last week, Caterpillar announced it would shut down a plant in Ontario, just over one month after locking out 500 workers. Rio Tinto Alcan locked out 750 workers in Quebec Jan. 1. HealthBridge locked out 800 nursing home workers in Connecticut in December. As Laura Clawson at the Daily Kos notes, “For evidence of a war on workers, look no further than the rise of the lockout.”

Wednesday marked the six-month anniversary of America Crystal Sugar Co.’s lockout of 1,300 workers and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told the U.S. House: “It’s time for the company to negotiate.”

Hostess Brands, the company that has brought us such iconically American snacks as Twinkies, yesterday filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time since 2004. But the move does more than affect our universal sweet tooth—it has vast repercussions for some 5,000 workers, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM).

Amy Masciola, communications consultant with the Minnesota AFL-CIO, sends us this.

When a company locks out workers and won’t negotiate a contract, the entire community suffers a massive economic loss—as a new report on the economic effects of American Crystal Sugar Co.’s lockout of 1,300 workers in the upper Midwest details.

Relations between management and the 1,300 locked-out workers at American Crystal Sugar Co. reached a new low this week, as recordings were made public of company CEO David Berg likening the workers and their contract to a cancerous tumor.

Some 750 United Steelworkers (USW) members ratified a new contract, ending an 11-month lockout, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,400 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

UAW members in Wisconsin ratify a new contract with Oshkosh Corp., and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,400 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

The 250 members of the Panama Canal Pilots Union recently voted to affiliate with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).  The pilots guide the ships that transit the historic canal.

Deborah Dion with the Ohio AFL-CIO field program sends us this.

Yesterday, Communications Workers (CWA) President Larry Cohen and Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga joined hundreds of union members from AFSCME, APWU, BCTGM, Bricklayers, CWA, FOP, IAFF, IBEW, OCSEA, OPBA, Plumbers & Pipefitters, SOAR, TWU, UFCW, USW, and Working America and community activists at a rally in Columbus to ask them to stand up to Gov. John Kasich’s anti-middle class agenda by getting their co-workers, families, and neighbors out to vote NO on Issue 2/Senate Bill 5.