Locked-out union employees at American Crystal Sugar Co. Saturday said no for the third time in nearly a year to their company's contract offer. The union says 63 percent of the union's 1,300 worker membership voted against the offer. The workers have been locked out of plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa since last August.

For the first time since February, talks to end a 9-month contract dispute are scheduled to resume on June 8. About 1,300 workers at Crystal plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa have been locked out since August.

A union official says there won't be mass concessions but there will be new proposals when locked out workers site down for mediated talks with American Crystal Sugar on June eighth. The two sides have not spoken since February. The lockout of 1,300 workers began last August.

The Grand Forks Herald reports the union representing 1,300 workers from around the Red River Valley plans to bring new proposals to the table in an attempt to end the lockout that has lasted for more than 70 days.

The sugar giant will offer beet growers in the Red River Valley a lower price this year, partly because of the financial toll of its lockout of 1,300 union workers. But the company says it has already replaced more than half of those workers. Crystal promised growers higher prices next year, when the company expects all of the locked out workers will have been replaced.

American Crystal Sugar and its locked out union workers were scheduled to meet again Friday in an effort to restart contract talks. The company locked out 1,300 workers at five factories last August. This is the fourth time the two sides have met with a federal mediator to try to end the impasse.

Union leaders say 90 percent of members who cast ballots voted against the company's latest offer. The rejection means 1,300 workers are heading into the fourth month of their lockout.

American Crystal Sugar is adamant that it will not change its contract offer to 1,300 union workers. Some of the employees who have been locked out for nearly 11 months are now interested in voting again on the offer they've spurned in the past. Union leaders have scheduled a vote for June 23.