A few locked out workers from American Crystal Sugar were back on the picket line Wednesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the union lockout by company. More than 1,300 workers from plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa have been affected by the lockout.

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.

Locked-out union workers from American Crystal Sugar will try once more to resolve its differences with company owners when it votes on a contract proposal Saturday. The workers, locked out of plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa for nearly a year, have overwhelmingly rejected two previous contract offers.

Union members are demonstrating at the homes of American Crystal Sugar's directors as the labor dispute drags on. An AFL-CIO spokesman tells the Fargo Forum the demonstrations will continue indefinitely. Roughly 1,300 workers have been locked out from plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa for more than a year.

American Crystal Sugar Co.’s locked-out workers will hold rallies in front of grocery stores in Fargo and in Grand Forks on Monday as they launch a national consumer boycott of the company’s products, the Fargo Forum reports. It's the latest development in the long-running labor dispute that dates to August 2011, when about 1,300 union workers at the company’s plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa were locked out by management.

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.

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.

Ten Democrats in the Legislature have introduced a bill that would prohibit government departments and agencies from buying sugar from American Crystal until the company resolves its dispute with union workers. More than 1,300 workers have been locked out since Aug. 1.