Here's the Tweet:
Read that, and you think, as did I, 'Wow: 25%. A big number and a boost for the Wausau area.'@ScottWalker · Toured Wausau Container Corp. They increased workforce 25% in past two years:
That's good, important news, since the Wausau/Marathon County area has lost hundreds of legacy paper industry jobs at Wausau Paper Corp. on "Wrong-Way" Walker's watch:
In another blow to Wisconsin's papermaking industry, Wausau Paper Corp. on Wednesday said it will close its paper mill in Brokaw and eliminate 450 jobs.But now, a 25% increase, at one paper business!
And I wondered, how many jobs is he talking about?
Not workforce percentages. Actual new jobs.
That figure appears to be 13, though you won't find it in his percentage-touting Tweet.
* For that figure, and its full context, you have to plow through the self-serving misdirection aplenty in a Walker campaign press release issued the same day as the Tweet:
Yes, 13 new jobs is a nice bump for the company - - and it looks like it's a nice place with a good story to tell, devoid of campaign hype - - but 13 jobs won't cover but a minuscule fraction of the previous job losses at once-mighty Wausau Paper Corp.Wausau Container Corporation was founded in 1992 and expanded from a 14,000 square-foot facility to a 65,000 square-foot facility, adding 13 new jobs since July 2012.
And that's the heart of the phony papers Gov. Wrong-Way is peddling.
Which Walker also did when touting the number of people he added to BadgerCare's low-income health insurance plan to draw attention away from an even larger number he kicked off the plan when turning down federal Medicaid funding that would have covered everyone.
The Wausau paper jobs number game gets even worse because the New York-based hedge fund that took control of Wausau Paper Corp. and forced out workers by the hundreds also wants the remaining "few dozen" managerial and executive positions moved out-of-state, too.
Wiping out, on paper, the net gain of 13 paper industry jobs.
Just because you're 140,000 jobs short of meeting your campaign's signature promise of 250,000 new private-sector jobs to be created in one term doesn't mean you should overstate the value of a few jobs when they appear.
Shell games with jobs are nothing new in Central Wisconsin. In 2012, Walker kicked off his recall campaign at G3 Industries in Mosinee.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wkow.com/story/15152797/gov-walker-talks-jobs-at-kronenwetter-business
It was such a great story that he made a return visit with GOP U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson, too.
http://www.wpr.org/walker-thompson-tout-wisconsins-importance-election
He used the company in his speech to the Republican National Convention in August 2012.
http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/walker-gets-standing-ovation-at-republican-convention/article_56a16404-f166-11e1-a9b9-0019bb2963f4.html
The owner was insistent that thanks to Walker's policies, he was able to add jobs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HypRFyYyKO8
Of course, Walker is still governor and we all know about his policies. And G3 Industries plans to add 35 jobs in the coming months, too. But how are they doing this? By closing a facility in Menominee Falls that employed 42. So what if that's a net loss of 7 Wisconsin jobs, right?
http://www.biztimes.com/article/20140701/ENEWSLETTERS02/140709981
So we'll have to see if that will be another campaign backdrop this year.