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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 ...
Well, I am originally from NY .. how bad is that ? Left 40+ years ago. There are good people there, too (hard as that may be to imagine).
But in moving to VA, I came to love and respect the local culture which is so disdained up North. I.e., “Do they wear shoes down there?” isn’t my idea of humor.
Too many transplants lately have no respect for, much less understanding of, why these more conservative states are not quite the basket cases the rust belt states have become.
Thanks for the update!
BTTT
I was born in Fond Du Lac and my dad worked at MM, that beautiful little town is going to be in very big trouble very soon.
Just tell them “bless your heart” Yanks have no idea you are being condecending and insulting to them.. they think you are being kind and sweet.
“Oh, you really believe that? Well bless your heart.”
Its such a great line, its one of the few ways you can insult a person to their face and get a “thank you” from them in return.
In reading up on this further, it looks like the union isn’t on strike, it has just rejected a company proposal to renegotiate the existing contract.
++++++++++++++
Ahh...so two years of bennies courtesy of Wisconsin and US taxpayers. Mebbe they weren’t so stupid. Vile, evil, liberal, socialist, self centered - but not stupid.
Will these jobs go to Oklahoma as non-union jobs? I saw in some midwest town that Selmer musical instrument company threw the union out or shutdown or something. The union workers were stunned.
One said we did everything we could - pickett, boycott and all the normal union agitation crap. And now he was on ths street and was stunned.
Because in two years, no one will need a job; the government will provide us with our every need from cradle to grave.
I would be quiet. I knew someone who worked at a defense manufacturer and the union boys in the shop found out he was a Repub even though he was very low key. He was pushed out in a month.
That may be the same company referred to in my post #187.
They need to hire new workers in OK. NJ transplants are wrecking NC and SC.
Ditto that.
Yes. Selmer Conn make band musical instruments. Frech horns, clarinets, trombones, trumpets, etc.
I think they voted to decertify the union but I thought many of the union employees were tossed in the street where they belonged. The strike went on for years.
LMAO!
At their own expense.
YOu’re right ... have to remember to do that more frequently!
See!! That just goes to show you how outdated it is.
A Job, Fool!! Thats whaat you get to keep!Your math is way off too! but thats the way Democrats do the math for their so called loyal worker bees:-) Oh, and where are these machinists going to get a job when the free-bees run out?
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