Expanded version of this posting at Purple Wisconsin:
But I don't think you will hear Walker touting the Mercury Marine expansion, and not because he's down in Tampa getting ready to tell the GOP faithful that he busted unions in Wisconsin, and so can you.
It's because Mercury Marine was saved as a Wisconsin employer through the intervention of Gov. Jim Doyle, (D) and a union that accepted concessions.
Walker has little use for private-sector unions as well - - except as fodder for divide-and-conquer strategies tailored to serve major state corporations and donors - - and like the talk radio shows who promote Walker at ever turn, only use Doyle as a punching bag.
Big let's all be fair and balanced about it and give credit where credit is due: to union members who made sacrifices, and to the former Democratic Governor who provided public sector leadership when it counted to save jobs and pave the way for growth.
In August 2010 it was announced that some 200 jobs would be returning to Fond du Lac, as Mercury's Oklahoma oprations (making the MerCruiser line) would be closed down and returned to Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteRandy Hopper was the districts State Senator then, had gotten his MBA at Northwestern U. Hopper was involved in the "negotiations" (Mercury had threatened to leave Fond du Lac, which, if it had happened, would have made us a ghost town), and Mercury was bailed out ("Too big to fail"). Money from the State came, local sales taxes were increased, and labor was forced to make many dramatic, painful concessions--all to save Mercury.
As it turns out, this scenario pretty much was used later as the model for Scott Walker's WEDC--using State taxpayer dollars
to "help" corporations get bailed out, creating or saving a small number of jobs for local firms. Trouble is now, the "help" firms get is often linked to the "help" Scott Walker gets in the form of campaign contributions.
Seems like quasi-legalized blackmail to me, and many others.