Thursday, September 10, 2009

A Successful Swindle

The union has conceded. The company will get their “wage freeze and 30 percent pay cut for new hires and workers called back from layoffs.”

They will also get $3 million from the City of Fond du Lac.

And, they will have access to $50 million in a low-interest, performance based loan from Fond du Lac County. There is $500 credit for job retention, a $1,000 credit for job creation, and a $500 penalty for job loss. A proposed half-cent sales tax would help support this incentive.

The threat of firing 800 to 1,800 workers and, possibly, economically eviscerating a community seems quite lucrative.

One odd comment from the Journal Sentinel article reporting this latest development in the Mercury Marine saga: Steve Buechel, Fond du Lac County Executive, stated, “This is going to help them get a new product to market.”

Yet, in a previous article, the Mercury Marine president said, “Quite simply, Mercury is capable of producing many more engines than the market will require in the foreseeable future. Our facilities were designed and built during much different market conditions and are now underutilized.”

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