Mercury Marine says union can vote again

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Stillwater NewsPress

Officials from Mercury Marine and the Midwest Territory of the IAMAW, the union that represents the company’s manufacturing employees, agreed today to allow workers to vote again on a proposed labor contract originally offered by the company on Aug. 19.

State and local officials over the past several days have encouraged the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and Mercury Marine to meet and discuss a process for a revote on the company’s “best and final” contract proposal, company representatives said today.

Mercury’s deadline for acceptance by the union of the company’s “best and final” proposal was originally set for midnight Saturday, Aug. 29, at which time the company would have removed the contract from consideration. "However, due to questions surrounding the voting process, Mercury informed the union that its membership can continue to consider the original proposal through the voting on Sept. 4," Mercury said in a statement this evening.

“Hundreds of employees expressed a desire to voice their true feelings, and that’s something we can’t ignore,” said Mark Schwabero, president of Mercury Marine. “Obviously this is a difficult situation for all employees in Fond du Lac and Stillwater.”

Read more: http://www.stillwater-newspress.com/local/local_story_244193444.html

[jmowreader]

1. What a proposal...

We already know the company has in place plans to move all the jobs in Fond du Lac to Stillwater. "Vote the way we want you to so it looks like you chose our way out of your own free will, or your job will be in Oklahoma next year and someone else will be doing it."

[Craftsman]

12. Beats no job at all

[saigon68]

15. Welcome to Mexico

[Craftsman]

16. Thank you NAFTA and CAFTA

But will Obama or the or the dems repel it? Probably not.

[saigon68]

17. A Big Round of Applause to Bill Clinton

Yes you are right, they won't do Jack over that

The DLC is beholden to their Corporate Masters.

[jmowreader]

18. For this year, anyway

Y'know, folks, we are NOT talking about a company that makes super high tech shit. They make boat motors--if you can overhaul an engine, you have all the skills necessary to build a boat motor--and there are a LOT of people in Oklahoma that can do that, including the people who ALREADY WORK AT THE MERCURY PLANT IN STILLWATER!!! And that's what some of the posters to this thread don't quite grasp: while they're sitting there talking about how stupid and incapable of doing this work people in Oklahoma are, Oklahomans are busy building Mercury products.

So here's what happens: this year they tell the staff, "vote our way on this labor contract or your job goes to Stillwater." Next year it's "decertify the union or your job goes to Stillwater." The year after that it's "take a 40-percent pay cut or your job goes to Stillwater." And the people in Fond du Lac know the Stillwater shit isn't just idle threats (sorry, I know this is a thread about an engine manufacturer) because the Stillwater plant already exists. It's probably large enough to take on the Fond du Lac work. Mercury's product line is comprised of relatively small things--take two of your dining room chairs, put them back to back, draw a line 18 inches from the chairs all the way around, and you've described the floor space needed to assemble the largest outboard Mercury makes. The table itself is large enough to assemble an inboard. It's not like we're talking about a school bus factory. And there's LOTS of open land in the vicinity of Stillwater; if they need a new building they can have one in four months. (Butler Buildings go up really fast, and compared to a concrete block building they're inexpensive.)

[madaboutharry]

2. For some reason, I think many did not realize that they would

be voting themselves out of a job. The workers are really in a bind. Mercury Marine has them over a barrel. The flip side of the coin is that the leisure boating industry is completely in the toilet.

[safeinOhio]

3. What are labor relations like at

Johnson and Evenrude? I've always liked them.

[One_Life_To_Give]

19. OMC, Johnson, Evinrude went bankrupt years ago

OMC invested heavily in Ficht fuel injection technology to comply with environmental regulations. It didn't come about as quickly and had extended costs that put them under. BRP (Bombardier, the Ski-doo people) purchased OMC in the fire sale and is making the Ficht Outboard under the Evinrude brand.

[boomerbust]

4. 30% wage cut

And 7 year wage freeze. Accept and live in poverty for the next decade.Fuck Mercury Marine!

[Spouting Horn]

5. Yes, and that's why they're moving.

[Trajan]

6. All the good paying jobs moved to the Slavedoms of the South ...

America's very own 'offshoring' that's been going on since the 80's ....

Signed,
Well Paid Aerospace Worker Who Watched His Job Go To Texas at Less Than Half Pay and No Benefits ....

Yes; and THAT'S why they're moving ....

[excess_3]

9. how much do they make now? /nt

[madokie]

14. They make trash motors anyway

couldn't give me one of them

[clixtox]

7. Corporations don't have a "conscience", only "Public Relations".

Corporations have only one goal, one. Maximize profits for the owners and generate more and more profits, whatever that requires, which can be "gotten away with".

This is the case with every for-profit corporation extant around the world.

They have allegiance to no country, no people except the most major ownership interests.

Any "good" they do is calculated for their own balance sheet.

Maintaining "goodwill" is crucial to keeping people bamboozled and is actually a corporate asset much like real estate.

Without this patina, a very thin veneer to be sure, the criminal corporate cupidity very well might incite the sheeple to revolt.

Our corporate masters have fine-tuned the propaganda machine to the extent that most people are clueless.

Lots of opinions but very little related and pertinent knowledge among almost all Americans.

The sheeple have been mislead so adroitly that they agitate inimically, albeit hysterically, to their own best interests.

Those corporations are controlling OUR lives, OUR country, OUR politics, OUR elections, OUR economy, THEIR wars, OUR "justice" system, OUR health outcomes and care, OUR media, OUR resources, OUR environment and OUR future.

Kinda scary when you stop to think about it...

[Psephos]

8. Sounds a lot like politicians

and a lot like any random collection of humans, for that matter. ;)

Personally, I don't blame a dog that tries to bite me. After all, he's a dog. Instead, I do whatever it takes to ensure that he can't and won't bite me.

[clixtox]

10. My sentiments exactly...

Which is why I am living in Vietnam now, most of the time.

How are you, Psephos, avoiding being bitten, or worse, by the dogs of unbridled, unmuzzled capitalism and their politician lackeys?

Are you living "off the grid"?

Not encouraging them by paying taxes are you?

Not at all or "Self" employed?

Growing all of your own food?

Creating all of the energy you require yourself?

Only a bicycle and your feet, no vehicles?

Not voting for candidates because they are Dems or Rethugs?

What does it take? There are a lot of dogs out there...

You have to be the picture of nimbleness to not get scratched in the USA!

[Craftsman]

11. You can bet Ford and other major manufactures are looking at this closely

In these hard times they will press the unions hard.

[guitar man]

13. What pisses me off most

is that the state of Oklahoma jumped straight in and offered to pay the company's moving expenses to bring the jobs down here. Yeah, subsidize union busting with my tax dollars.... :grr: