FOND DU LAC, Wisc.—Workers at the Mercury Marine marine-engine plant here voted Nov. 11 to reject
revising their contract. The tentative revised agreement between Mercury and International Association of Machinists Lodge 1947 could have raised wages, Lodge 1947 business representative Ben Elizondo told the Fond du Lac Reporter, but he declined to give details of the revisions. “We’ll move forward and we’ll do the best we can to protect jobs in Fond du Lac,” he said. The current seven-year contract expires in 2021. Elizondo said the talks on revising it were an attempt to repair trust lost in 2009, when workers took major concessions to prevent Mercury from moving the plant to Oklahoma, and to help the company attract more workers. Employment at the Fond du Lac plant has increased from 1,900 in 2009 to more than 3,200 last spring, but with unemployment in this city of 43,000 at 3%, it had about 75 unfilled jobs advertised as of Nov. 9. Read more
