Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Suicide of Lodge 1947

Hmmmm.

A last-minute decision Saturday to have a second vote on a labor contract at Mercury Marine Inc. was effectively killed early Sunday when the company said it would not accept the results of any ballots cast after midnight.

Late Saturday night, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Lodge 1947 announced there would be a second vote on the contract proposal that was scheduled to expire at midnight. Voting began at the union hall in Fond du Lac shortly after 10 p.m., was expected to last until midnight and continue on Sunday until 6 p.m.

But early Sunday morning, union officials said a Mercury Marine executive told them the company would not accept any ballots cast after midnight.

Thus, the polls will not be open Sunday as announced earlier, said Dan Longsine, the union’s chief negotiator.

Ballots cast Saturday night will probably be voided, Longsine said.

One suspects that Mr. Longsine and other lodge officers will not be very popular people in Fond du Lac over the next 3-5 years.....

7 comments:

Andrew K said...

I kind of hoped Mercury Marine would let the union geniuses re-vote. I think it also would have been better to see what the election results would have been.

Sad for Fond du Lac, I think, given that 800 unionists just went and destroyed a couple thousand jobs.

But, hey, at least they got to keep their over-inflated wages, benefits, and work contracts...

Fools.

Also, you think unions would learn that companies that say "We'll leave if you don't accept this" mean it. Look at Schlitz (I think it was Schlitz).

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

It's sad to see the shortsightedness on both sides here. Having just facilitated a change in the pay structure for Union employees at my job,I can see where this was a bad job by all concerned.

RAG said...

I agree with Deekaman. If it looked like the union was going to have a change of heart, a day longer would not have made any difference. Actually, by its actions, the company empowered the union a bit.

Dan said...

I think Mercury is sending a message to Stillwater, OK. Don't join a union but if you do, we play hardball.
The union totally screwed things up for the lemmings they represent.

Anonymous said...

Why does the company have to give an extension? Didn't they already do enough with negotiating with the union on good faith and setting the deadline that both agreed too? It is the union that should be ashamed of themselves for not living up to their end of the agreement by having a decision by Saturday midnight. I read that one of the reasons that the union gave was because people were out of town for the weekend. Well, I say two things to that. 1) If your job is on the line, then you should be in town to take care of it. 2) Why did they wait until the weekend to do it?

I think the union leaders didn't want to do the vote and try to prove something to the company, but ended up bowing to their members. So now they should have to answer to them as to why they wouldn't allow a vote earlier.

Anonymous said...

Here is a link to a facebook page to get a perspective from Stillwater's side.


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stillwater-OK/Keep-Mercury-Marine-In-Stillwater/114045959769

Dad29 said...

FWIW, everybody knows that Merc wanted to dump the Union.

What's surprising is that the Union so grossly mis-played their hand.

And by the way: the Union has no Divine Right to exist at Merc. At one time, it might have been a good thing.

Now? Maybe not, eh?