No changes come from Mercury’s meeting with union
FOND DU LAC, Wis. — Union officials met Tuesday afternoon with Mark Schwabero, Mercury Marine president, but no changes were made to the contract rejected by union members Sunday and no plans for a second vote on the proposal were announced.
Mercury reiterated in a release following the meeting that negotiations had not been reopened. Instead, the gathering was the conclusion to a meeting requested last week by union representatives.
The meeting took place at Mercury headquarters and included Schwabero; Ray Atchinson, vice president of human resources for Mercury; Mark Zillges, president of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1947; and Dan Longsine, lead negotiator for the union.
Union workers at Mercury voted Sunday to reject a contract proposal that would have kept manufacturing jobs in Fond du Lac through 2016. As a result, the company said Monday it will consolidate much of its Fond du Lac manufacturing operations with its existing operations in an expanded Stillwater, Okla., facility.
“We will continue to run the Fond du Lac manufacturing facility under the terms of the current contract, which is not competitive in this market environment, and will now develop a comprehensive plan to shift manufacturing jobs to Stillwater,” Schwabero said in a statement.
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