Posted on 08/23/2009 3:10:52 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
FOND DU LAC, Wis. – Union workers at Mercury Marine put their jobs at risk Sunday when they rejected a package of wage and benefit concessions the boat engine maker said it needed or it would move their work to a nonunion plant in Oklahoma.
Union leaders did not immediately release Sunday's tally but said the vote was "overwhelming" to reject what the company called its final offer.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 1947, represents 850 workers at Mercury Marine, the largest employer in the eastern Wisconsin city of Fond du Lac and the world's largest manufacturer of boat and recreational marine engines.
Mercury Marine issued a statement after the vote saying it will move many of its Fond du Lac manufacturing operations to its facility in Stillwater, Okla., over the next two to three years. The company said it would continue to operate the Fond du Lac facility for now under the terms and conditions of the existing contract, which expires in 2012.
"This has been a very difficult and stressful process for all involved," Mark Schwabero, president of Mercury Marine, said in a statement. "We will work closely with our team in Fond du Lac to develop and communicate a transition plan for this 24-36 month process."
Mercury Marine spokesman Steve Fleming had said last week that if the offer was rejected, the union and company could resume talks and hold another vote this coming Saturday, but its offer would not change.
Local 1947 President Mark Zillges said Friday there would be no further negotiations. He did not immediately return a phone call Sunday seeking comment.
Fond du Lac city manager Thomas Herre called the vote "a huge disappointment."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
bttt
Let's wait and see how they handle this.....
Been disappointed too many times....in the past.
oh OK,....works for me. Didnt realize it wasn’t going to close he company.
Time for a Zero Administration move to take over Mercury Marine and “save” those jobs by giving the company to the “rightful” owners. Just like GM and Chrysler.
Live liberal, die liberal. What more is there to say? They VOTED to end their jobs. I live 20 miles from FDL. I hope your sons didn’t vote to end their jobs because they don’t deserve what the union did to them.
The reason he called you a right wing nut job is because he didn’t have any other reply so it was a way to get out of the debate and still save face.
You had facts. He had emotion
Yes, it’s called ‘combined reporting’, passed in the latest budget. If a corp is headquartered in WI and has plants in other states around the country, they have to pay taxes in WI based upon their sales in other states. Harley just took a 22 MILLION loss in taxes. IMO, Harley will be the next company to leave this state. We’ll be left with welfare cases from Chicago, we’re doomed, ala Michigan, only worse. Obama is moving his operations north. What a fiasco.
Can’t wait for the truly stupid to have unionized government healthcare workers.
Unions outlived their usefulness decades ago, now they are just mob run extortion artists. How stupid can they be turning down the deal presented? Very f’*** stupid, that’s for sure.
Maybe odumbo can save or create these jobs also
My bet is on the very probable fact that the overwhelming majority of workers in this plant voted for Øbama. With all due respect for all sane Michiganites, this justice cannot be more poetic.
Not to worry. Card-check will fix this little problem...
Idiot unions. They’d rather lose their jobs than suck it up and work like normal people.
This Mercury Marine topic has been discussed at length by Mark Belling on Milwaukee’s WISN 1130AM radio. Mark has chronicled the loss of jobs in Wisconsin due to our leftist government’s anti-business agenda, and the union idiots who bleed their employers until the jobs are dead.
Other states are taking our jobs, and that is to their credit, as those states know how to court businesses and they actually want to employ their state’s residents. But in Wisconsin, they throw the jobs away. Let them eat cheese!
Oh, except the way it’s going it will be cheese imported from California or Vermont.
Wisconsin is tax hell. Try owning even a modest home here. The property taxes are outrageous. The liberals insufferable.
A repub governor in 2010 would be a nice relief. We have a good prospect in Scott Walker, and our current poopyhead gov.Doyle has announced he’ll not run again. He passed a horrid tax laden budget recently and is running for the hills, too cowardly to face what he’s done. Egghead. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
I’m an engineer also, WI voted for Doyle, We the people who value freedom didn’t vote for this. It’s a sad day for WI and FDL. My hubby and I are praying every day Quad doesn’t follow suit. I’ll bet Doyle is in Europe buying cho-cho trains.
We are trying really hard to be MI or CA.
Oh, but we just lured a Bio something job from Minnesota that’s bringing 8 jobs to WI! Yippie! Banner headlines in the Journal. Gag.
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