Working to keep jobs in Fond du Lac

FOND DU LAC - With Mercury Marine saying it plans to move hundreds of manufacturing jobs to Oklahoma, state and local leaders are trying to make sure even more jobs won’t be leaving Fond du Lac.

City and county officials met with the company Monday afternoon. During that meeting an incentives package was discussed to keep the roughly 800 salaried jobs at the company's headquarters in Fond du Lac. Those are separate from the 850 manufacturing positions.

Those government incentives often include tax credits and workforce training.

"At this point in time we're not going to discuss the specifics of what is in the package simply because -- I hate to say competing, so to speak -- for those headquarter positions with Oklahoma,” said Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, president of the Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corp.

The company has said it plans to announce its decision about those positions sometime around Labor Day.

Local officials say they offered a similar incentives package to keep the manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin, but say it came down to the union and the company.

“They said they are now looking forward to at the Stillwater possibility. We are now looking forward to maintaining the corporate headquarters. We are certainly focusing on that but we are not abandoning keeping the manufacturing jobs in Fond du Lac,” said Tom Herre, Fond du Lac City Manager.

The incentive package to Mercury Marine is set to go in front of the city council and county board later this week.

Union representatives and Mercury Marine officials are scheduled to meet again Tuesday afternoon. That meeting was requested by the union, but there is no word on the exact nature of that meeting.