What's the news on Mercury Marine?

[SeaNymph Man]

Was wondering what is up with Mercury Marine. Are they staying in Fon Du Lac, Wisconsin or are they making the move to Stillwater,Oklahoma? I had
heard that there were talks that they would likely move,but I kind of lost track of the story. If Carl Kiekhaefer were alive today and in charge,I would bet he would do his best to keep operations going in Fon Du Lac. Afterall,he's the guy that founded Mercury Marine,formerly known as Kiekhaefer Mercury!
His son,Fred Kiekhaefer,is president of Mercury Racing,...so there is still a Kiek
haefer associated with the Mercury name!

 

[TOHATSU GURU]

Re: What's the news on Mercury Marine?

When I spoke to Mercury today I was told that virtually everyone was off until January 4th and the last news about the big move was that it was a swerve to get concessions out of Wisconsin and that it worked. Oklahoma is pretty pissed off though.

 

[roscoe]

Re: What's the news on Mercury Marine?

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=346719&highlight=mercury+oklahoma

 

[SeaNymph Man]

Re: What's the news on Mercury Marine?

After reading the story,I am not sure what to think about all this. Not to get another huge discussion going on the issue again,but I would have taken the concessions and slight cut in pay in order to keep my job. In other words,I
would have voted yes had I been a Mercury employee and union member. I
have never worked in a unionized facility and after the things I hear about what unions do,...not all of them,of course,...and how they can cheat people,
I am glad that the non-perishable grocery DC I work at is non-union. My supervisor treats me just fine and I give him/her my full cooperation if and when he/she asks me to perform a certain task outside of my normal duties.
I feel I receive a pretty fair wage for the type of work I do and the type of
company I work for. Even if it is two to three years before Mercury is out of
Wisconsin,I still feel that they are doing what they need to do to stay afloat in this challenging economy.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: What's the news on Mercury Marine?

several years ago mercury opened a new manufacturing facility in China to produce the mid range engines,rumour has it a second facility is planned in China as well.
I posted several years ago that the fon du lac employees best learn to eat rice and fish heads.
as the world trade goes more and more global there is less and less national US brands.
I dont know what to say other than you cant outsource my job to china or india .

its also why I attend several technical schools each year,so far I have about 7 years worth of technical schools in the past 30 years.
this includes about 3 years of nothing but electronics schools in the United States Navy as a firecontrolman.

with modern plants most 5th graders can work at them however the person that repairs the manufacturing machinery will be in demand for life.
I can teach a 5th grader to run a CNC lathe, takes a bit longer to teach them how to program it or replace shear collars and tooling when something goes wrong.