From The Journal Record:

Although some observers hold doubts, Stillwater’s future job boost from a Mercury Marine union standoff could roll into a much bigger prize: the 1,000-employee corporate headquarters.

After several months of discussion, warnings and political posturing under a national recession that eliminated more than 50 percent of Mercury Marine sales, union workers at the company’s Fond du Lac, Wis., headquarters failed to meet the company’s Saturday deadline for adopting a new contract promising reduced operating expenses.

Declaring the talks over, on Sunday morning the Brunswick subsidiary reaffirmed its intent to relocate that city’s manufacturing operations to Stillwater when the current Fond du Lac union contract expires in 2011.

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From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

In the end, it came down to timing and a deadline.

And time was not on the side of the union of Mercury Marine Inc. after the company rejected the union’s attempt at a second vote on a proposed labor contract aimed at saving hundreds of jobs.

The vote Saturday night came too late, and further delays wouldn’t be fair to an Oklahoma community that’s been waiting for the outboard-engine maker to move additional work there, Mercury executives said Sunday.

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From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

More than 200 union members at Mercury Marine Inc. have signed petitions calling for a second vote on a labor contract that was rejected Sunday by what union leaders said was a wide margin.

Unless the union members take a second vote and approve the proposed concessions, Mercury Marine says it will move up to 850 manufacturing jobs to its nonunion plant in Stillwater, Okla. Also at risk is the company’s headquarters, which employs about 1,000 people.

“We are fighting right to the end,” said Fred Toth Jr., a 15-year Mercury employee and one of three union members who started the petition drive. “We already have about one-fourth of this union saying they want a revote.”

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From The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The fate of hundreds of Mercury Marine Inc. manufacturing jobs will be decided in a union vote Sunday, and the outcome also may determine whether the 70-year-old company keeps its world headquarters in Fond du Lac. Mercury, one of the Fox Valley’s largest employers, said Thursday that it will probably move its outboard engine manufacturing to Stillwater, Okla., unless its Fond du Lac union votes to accept contract concessions. Those concessions include a seven-year wage freeze and about 30% lower pay for new hires and employees called back to work from layoff.

[...]

Pulling out of Fond du Lac would cost Mercury, a division of Brunswick Corp., millions of dollars. Oklahoma state and local officials have offered to cover the costs in return for the jobs and taxes that the state would receive from the deal.Likewise, Wisconsin has offered to cover the costs of moving work from Mercury’s plant in Stillwater to Fond du Lac, possibly doubling the company’s manufacturing employment here over the next seven years.

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From The Associated Press:

An Oklahoma judge ruled Thursday that Chesapeake Energy Corp. won’t have to open its books to a shareholders’ group, a victory for the company in its defense of a $75 million bonus awarded to CEO Aubrey McClendon last December.

Oklahoma County District Judge Daniel Owens denied the books-and-records request by the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System. The group wanted to examine Chesapeake’s books to try to determine why the independent natural gas producer’s board of directors awarded the bonus after a year in which Chesapeake’s stock price plummeted and McClendon had to sell 31.5 million shares — about 94 percent of his stake in the company — because of a margin loan call in October.

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From The Oklahoma Gazette:

There is no gate to chain at 6100 N. Western, but the townspeople are watching as an heir apparent to Kerr-McGee, Chesapeake Energy Corp., builds its Oklahoma City legacy and sprawls its way through boom and bust in this, one of the most tumultuous of its 20 years.

There is a pervasive sense that Chesapeake is a company apart from others, that it sprints along with a wildcatter’s mentality and a tycoon’s bankroll, that it buys high, sells higher and sometimes is laid low in the process.

Although not as eccentric as Wonka, Aubrey McClendon is a workhorse, a man of diverse interest and singular vision. But that vision — a zig when others think it should be a zag — along with a penchant for control through ownership, has defined Chesapeake as an outlier, albeit a successful one.

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