Mercury Marine — 2,800

One thing I see a lot of people forgetting when discussing the Mercury Marine Situation is the fact Mercury Marine was primarily looking to consolidate two plants spread out by pretty much the width of our nation.

These jobs are going to leave anyways in two years. These guys are going to get knocked back to $15 while top executives will suffer nothing.

Source: Boots & Sabers Comment #5 by Keith Schmitz re: Yes!
What Keith is obviously forgetting is that another result of this vote is Brunswick will move MerCruiser manufacturing from Stillwater OK to Fond du Lac. Does it make at all sense for Brunswick to move MerCruiser to Fond du Lac and then (perhaps) before the move is complete shut down Fond du Lac and move it all again? No, it does not.

Mercury Marine is making a serious commitment to Fond du Lac and Wisconsin with this move, and from all appearances this is what Mercury Marine's management wanted.

Yeah, no doubt the concessions made by the Union are tough a pay cut is never an event to be joyed over, but are pay freezes worse than 100% pay cuts? Yeah, if I was a floor worker at Mercury Marine I'ld be looking, fortunately, there is an employer not too far away looking for extra help in similar manufacturing endeavors.

Mercury Marine — Union, Management, and State

In the discussions I see going on in the WI blogosphere mostly at Boots and Sabers there seems to be two villains. If you are coming from the left management is the villain and if you are coming from the right typically the union is at fault.

I see little discussion about the State of Wisconsin's role and by the state of Wisconsin I mean our government. I think it is this government that is most at fault. First, Jim Doyle made no obvious effort to try to broker a more favorable deal. Then our legislature seems hell bent on attacking, harassing, and punishing businesses.

Now, in good times a business can shrug off a demanding union, an apathetic governor, and a punishing legislature. In bad times, businesses need some slack. Now, perhaps not all of the previously needed factors need to loosen up, but right now we have a perfect storm here in Wisconsin and Mercury Marine is choosing to sail out of that perfect storm.