Marketplace of Ideas Blog

Sunday was the rarest of things in the news business — a busy news Sunday.

And it wasn’t a good news Sunday. The suppliers of the headlines were Mercury Marine of Fond du Lac and its union, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1947. In the morning, Local 1947 “overwhelmingly voted” against changing its contract with Mercury, changes the company said are needed to make Mercury — a company that makes recreational products that are not necessities — competitive in a soft economy where non-necessary purchases are being delayed or not made.

Not two hours passed after the announcement of the vote before Mercury said it was moving most of its manufacturing jobs from Fond du Lac to Stillwater, Okla., where its MerCruiser stern drives and inboards are made. Unless something changes by Saturday, 850 manufacturing jobs, more than 1,000 world headquarters jobs, and all the jobs at businesses that serve Mercury are going south or going away.

Generally, in the private sector I think union or nonunion choices are up to the labor and management of a particular company. (As for the public sector, they should not be allowed to unionize. Period.) Organized labor has made poor political choices over the decades, but overall union issues haven’t been big issues in Northeast Wisconsin.

But the tide seems to be turning. All the signs around the Kimberly area telling NewPage to reopen its paper mill have provided business for signmakers and accomplished nothing else. The union at Thomas Industries in Sheboygan watched Thomas' parent company move 280 jobs from Sheboygan to Monroe, La., instead of moving fewer than 100 jobs from Louisiana to Sheboygan. Elsewhere in Wisconsin, thousands of United Auto Workers members no longer have jobs at General Motors in Janesville, and won't have jobs at Chrysler Corp. in Kenosha by the end of 2010.

When you are talking about a company the size of Mercury Marine, labor–management issues aren’t esoteric and private anymore. (Particularly when the company in question has not just 850 manufacturing jobs, but more than 1,000 world-headquarters jobs in the same area. Note that of those nearly 2,000 employees, only the union members got to vote to unemploy themselves and their nonunion coworkers.)

Fond du Lac-area business people and economic development groups and some elected officials were properly concerned about the impact of Mercury’s leaving Fond du Lac. The Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corp. released estimates that Mercury's departure would mean a loss of 5,900 jobs and $353 million of estimated earnings in Fond du Lac County, and a loss of more than 11,000 jobs and $600 million in estimated earnings statewide. There are other impacts too — 5-percent increases in water rates that city residents are about to enjoy, equaling the amount of water revenues the city will lose from Mercury; the $620,000 in annual property tax payments provide; an estimated increase of unemployment of up to 13 percent; declining property values all over Fond du Lac County; and a likely jump in need of services provided by nonprofit organizations at the same time as a likely drop in contributions to those nonprofits.

(That last point is one of the biggest negative trends that has happened to Wisconsin’s economy in the past two decades. When headquarters operations of Northeast Wisconsin companies leave — and Mercury’s corporate headquarters will be moving to Oklahoma — so go the bulk of the charitable contributions of money and time corporations make.)

The people of Stillwater, the home of Oklahoma State University, are very pleased to be getting the jobs a Mercury expansion will bring. Recall the words of the Oklahoma secretary of commerce and tourism from last week:

As it explores the consolidation of production sites, we can tell you we have done everything possible to position Oklahoma as the right place for Mercury Marine to expand its business.

As the company weighs the business merits of Wisconsin and Oklahoma — a process they have made public — Commerce is diligently reminding Mercury Marine why Oklahoma is THE place to live and do business.

A right-to-work state, Oklahoma offers nationally recognized incentives; top-notch low-cost/no-cost customized training; a highly skilled workforce; a central location that provides market access to more than 80 million people within a 500-mile radius; and some of the lowest business costs and tax burdens in the nation.

In short, Oklahoma’s robust, pro-business economy and competitive living costs make it hard to beat.

What is hard to understand is the apparent attitude of an “overwhelming” majority of Local 1947’s members, who either (1) did not believe Mercury's statement that if the Fond du Lac contract wasn't changed that most of their jobs were leaving, or (2) actually chose no pay and no benefits over less pay and fewer benefits. They got an answer to choice one, and now they’ll get to experience the ramifications of choice two.

Many people are working for less money than they did a year ago in this economy. No one likes that. But is the choice of six months of unemployment and attempting to find a job a better choice? As of Sunday, Mercury employees might find themselves radioactive in the job market, the victims of guilt by association over the decision by a majority of their union brethren to stick it to their employer, or so they thought.

Union people claim that unions are needed to protect employees from their employers. That argument hasn’t held water in at least three decades. Union membership hasn’t stopped companies from shedding workers during the recessions of the early ’80s, the early ’90s, the early 2000s or certainly now. In good economic times, the employee has the power by being able to select one employer over another. In bad economic times, the employer gets to determine how many employees and how many facilities it needs in an era of shrinking business. (And, by the way, since half of American households own stock in publicly traded companies, one can conclude that a substantial number of union-member Mercury employees own stock in Brunswick Corp., Mercury’s parent company.)

Like it or not, the reality is that an employee works at a company under conditions the employer determines, from pay scale to offered benefits to workplace rules. If the employee does not like those conditions, the employee is free to leave. (And, for that matter, start a business of his or her own.) That’s how it works in the vast majority of workplace environments in this country. No one has a right to a specific job — or to a job, period.

This certainly will have a political impact in the 2010 elections. One can’t help noticing that, when a major political party more affiliated with the labor movement than the other major political party has had complete control of the Madison political process, major employers representing tens of thousands of jobs have either closed, or announced plans to close or substantially reduce their Wisconsin employment. Subtract those estimated 11,000 jobs, and Wisconsin’s economic climate just got that much worse.

Local 1947’s Web site calls it “a voice for unity and action.” The New York Times once said that “The labor movement’s basic purpose is to achieve a better life for its members. A union that fails in this purpose has failed utterly.”

Perhaps Local 1947’s members can contemplate that at their next local meeting. For the sake of convenience, that next meeting could be at 347 N. Peters Ave. in Fond du Lac — the site of the Fond du Lac Area Job & Career Center.