Posted on 09/05/2009 12:48:43 AM PDT by rellimpank
Fond du Lac Union workers at Mercury Marine Inc. approved a hotly contested package of contract concessions aimed at keeping hundreds of jobs at the outboard-engine factory instead of sending the work to a nonunion plant in Oklahoma.
The concessions were approved in a last-ditch vote Thursday and Friday after more than a week of union infighting over the company's refusal to budge from its demands. Among other things, the company sought a wage freeze and a 30% pay cut for new hires and workers called back from layoffs.
Had the proposal been voted down, the company was threatening to move as many as 850 factory jobs to Stillwater, Okla. Also at risk were about 1,000 jobs at the company's headquarters in Fond du Lac.
The vote was the third taken by the union. The concessions were rejected soundly in an Aug. 23 vote, and a second vote was aborted early this week because it was not completed by the company's deadline. The company eventually agreed to accept a third vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
The union had a change of heart?
lake ‘x’. the merc 1958 75a (60 horse) 50 grand torture test. carl k....nobody like him..
—the members still working apparently did—
Too bad the iron workers were not as smart in the 60's and 70's..
Concessions or unemployment. You decide.
Has a way of clarifying thing.
I doubt the troubles are over. Taking the article at face value - a dangerous thing to do given the state of journalism in these United States - bad feelings were created all around. Fond du Lac workers will be resentful and the Stillwater workers will feel screwed. Perhaps the most ominous statement is “but now the union lives to fight another day.”
Absolutely. I'm sure not going to have confidence in any Mercury Marine product, assembled by a pissed off union flunkie.
They would have been better off going to Oklahoma and say FU to all that union BS.
Perhaps the most ominous statement is but now the union lives to fight another day.
____________________________________________________________
That statement seems to be meant to be the “most ominous statement”.
To which I say, “It will be at least seven years before the union can do anything about it.”
This membership may have learned, as citizens all over this country, that the unions/representatives have only their self interest at heart and members/citizens have to make the decisions that control their lives.
Just a minute. They didn't decide NOT TO KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE. They decided to kill their union brothers in Stillwater, OK.
The union voted to accept a 30% wage cut for new hires and workers called back from layoffs. But note, in the same negotiation, the company will close the Stillwater plant, bringing some of those jobs into Fon du Lac. So, the workers in OK who will lose their jobs and the town of Stillwater got screwed.
http://www.stillwater-newspress.com/local/local_story_247224435.html
Read the article in the Stillwater News. Be sure to read the comments. One jerk, writes (about the paycut), "Doesn't the company realize people need money to exist". Duh! So do businesses! Ain't a lot of boat motors being sold right now!
The Union members should wake up and dumb the Union.
Have you seen the price of boat motors lately? That’s why they arent being sold.
"In addition to the 850 employees at the Fond du Lac plant, about 500 more have been on layoff. Union rules prevented the laid-off workers from participating in the referendum, even though they had a lot to gain or lose from the results."
"It's unfortunate that we didn't have the opportunity to cast our vote," said Russ Lathrop, a 13-year Mercury employee who has been laid off since Jan. 19.
Lathrop said he would gladly come back to work for a lower wage, especially since he hasn't been able to find another job in nearly nine months.
"I harbor no resentment toward the company at all," Lathrop said. "They have treated me and my family more than fairly over the years, and now they are in difficult times. I understand it's time to give back so that we can keep all of the jobs here in town."
This is the side of the story the Union wants buried!
Just wait. Give these union parasites a break and later on they will start sucking the life blood out of their host once again.
You can’t prosper with employees that hate their employer.
Same with the teachers union. I always said that teachers would be making more money without a union. For sure they’d save the $800 annual union dues. School boards would be more willing to offer better salaries to better teachers if the union wasn’t always on their case. But, in the union world, it isn’t fair to pay someone better because they perform better.
Too late. Those jobs are gone regardless because the company doesn’t want to keep them in Wisconsin. It is far more cost effective to move them South. And even after they get moved to Oklahoma I’ll give it 5 years and they’ll get moved again. To Mexico or China, somewhere even less expensive that Stillwater.
OK, so watch the Stillwater workers vote to take a 35% or 40% pay cut to keep their jobs. At some point Oklahoma and Wisconsin will reach rock bottom as far as salary and benefits, and the lowest one will be the winner. Up until the time Mercury ships manufacturing overseas.
I have no idea what you are talking about, so here is a picture of Obama with a pancake on his head.
To the best of my knowledge, Oklahoma is a right to work state and their employees were not unionized. So, I imagine that the Wisconsin union workers could care less about what happened in Oklahoma and would actually be glad that some non-union work will be transferring to Wisconsin.
I wonder if Mercury Marine got enough concessions and state government breaks to change their decision or if someone strongarmed them in favor of the union.
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