Lost Jobs

[No Joy in Waukegan]

Below is a quote from a Bombardier spokesperson that appeared in a Montreal Paper. Go to www.montrealgazzette.com (business section) for the whole story. Looks like American workers worst nightmare is coming true.

Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. got everything it wanted from OMC's sinking, for about $50 million U.S. "We're not at all interested in the plants," said Dominique Dionne, a Bombardier public-relations official. "We were interested in the engine brands (Johnson and Evinrude) and the Ficht (fuel-efficiency and anti-pollution) technology."

[steve(IL)]

Just curious - was OMC a union shop?

[Phil T.]

More jobs lost to the lesser value of Canadian currency. The difference must now be greater than the difference in national taxes.
A few years ago, there was an exodus of Cnadian jobs to the US, particularly the southeast. The wjorm seems to have turned, a few years ago, Cargill built the biggest ag fertilizer plant in NA in Manitoba.

[Firetiger]

So, if they are not interested in the plants where are they going to build these things? Building a new plant takes time. Just wondering.

[Observation]

50 Million to Bombardier is chump change. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

[1 more observation]

50 million to Bombardier IS chump change. But why did the Canadian Gov. have to bail them out in Jan? Does anyone have the details of this assistance?

[Get your facts straight]

Check Bombardiers stock...symbol BBD.A, BBD.B, BBD.PR.B and you will see a great company profile. Governments routinely subsidize certain portions of various companies when jobs are on the line or in Bombardiers case they were after a multi billion dollar deal for regional aircraft. They were in competition with Brazil. Snowmachines and boat motors are a sideline business to Bombardier now. They are heavy into Airplanes and mass transit systems having landed several major mulibillion dollar deal in the last six months. The Canadian Government still subsidizes through grants into reserch their aerospace line but that will come to a close soon. They are a Canadian success story.

[Rigger]

Waukegan, Illinois

A spokeswoman for Canada-based Bombardier Inc., which recently purchased the engine-making facilities and assets of Outboard Marine Corp. (OMC), said today the company is still unsure what it will do with the OMC plants in Waukegan.

OMC sold its engine business to Bombardier and its boatbuilding facilities and assets to JTC Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of US-based Genmar Holdings Inc. The sale was approved last week in US bankruptcy court and came about as a result of a joint bid of US$95 million from both companies.

Bombardier is reportedly paying about US$50 million for the engine businesses, which includes the Evinrude and Johnson engine brand names, as well as the FICHT fuel injection technology.

Whether Bombardier will keep the engine business in Waukegan is yet unknown. It is a major concern of the Independent Marine Machinists Association, which represents hundreds of workers displaced by the OMC plant closing and bankruptcy that began in December.

Dominique Dionne, Bombardier public relations director, said this morning from her office in Montreal, Canada, that Bombardier bought some, but not all, of the engine buildings in Waukegan when the engine business assets were purchased.

"We don't know at this time what the plans will be" for opening, or not opening, business in Waukegan.

She noted that Michel Baril, president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Recreational Products, will be available at a press conference at 5 p.m. today at the US-based Miami International Boat Show and may be able to shed more light on the plans.

Environmental problems

One problem in Waukegan centers on environmental problems at one of the buildings. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is involved, as well as the city of Waukegan, in trying to determine who might have responsibility for cleaning up the lakefront location. The cost is expected to be high, and could be a major issue in Bombardier's decision.

Dionne did not want to comment on any potential environmental issue, stating that more detail world be forthcoming from the company at a later date.

— R.J. DeLuke

[Bill Coomes]

Maybe all is not lost yet.

I think Bombardier may be awaiting the decision by the EPA about the Waukegan site. Federal Environmental Practice follows the "deepest pockets" rule, whoever has the most money cleans up the site. So, if Bombardier bought the plant, they may have to clean it up. If the EPA designates it as a "superfund" site, then the government gets the bill for the clean up. Some remediations can take up to 30 years, Bombardier is trying to protect itself from a lengthy and costly process.

Lobby your Congressman & Senators if you want this to be deemed a "superfund" site. Isn't Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert from the Chicago area? I'd start with his office.

[Stu_Pedaso]

Yes! Please, please let me and all the other taxpayers pay for every whim of the EPA. Call your congressmen and tell them not to cut our taxes or control their spending! There are actually people out there who still have money left over, and the government must stop that!

Now, all sarcasm aside, I would be quite interested in what exactly the contamination problem is that is going to require the millions and millions of dollars to remedy. I don't trust the epa any farther than I could throw a stack of their proposed snowmobile regulations. For all we know it could be 2 old car batteries that need to be recycled, with an additional $3 million dollars of consultants, testing, and wetland preservation restoration in alternate locations because the plant was built over a bunch of cattails in 1966.
Pardon my skepticism, but this is the same government who will require you to rewire and replumb your entire home if you want to replace a bathtub in an older house. If it's 20 tons of buried, leaking mercury, I stand corrected and agree that somebody needs to clean up that mess. But until then, I will roll my eyes and consider it an example of real people paying the price for feel-good bureaucratic regulations.

[rickyp]

Do people really believe that we would be better off without government agencies such as the EPA? Why were these agencies created in the first place? We really need to think about these issues and debate them in an intelligent manner. Two old car batteries? Plumbing and rewiring your house before selling it? Inflammitory remarks such as this have no place in a discussion about important environmental issues. While I'm sure the EPA suffers from the typical malaise of any burocracy, I am certain we, and our environment, are much better off because of them.

[Stu_Pedaso]

RickyP, It's not that I don't think their intent is good, it's that the past track record of good things out of control is certainly real. They don't have any oversight over their regulations, and they create rules that have the force of law that do not have to undergo scrutiny that laws do. If we don't question them on what they do, we'll all be fishing from biodegradable rowboats in a couple years. For crying out loud, I'm not saying lets all go out and burn tires and dump our oil in the road ditches, I'm saying "What's the whole story here?" For a million dollars, I could load up 100,000 cubic yards of dirt and haul it away. What needs to be done that is so expensive?
The $30,000 bathtub replacement was an example of a "good" thing gone out of control. The good idea being that when remodeling is undertaken that systems be updated. Great idea. However, the REAL end result is a bunch of delapidated older homes that are in HORRIBLE disrepair because there is no such thing as minor fixing. In this case we have people's jobs threatened, and taxpayers may end up being stuck with the bill. How that relates to the environmental issue is that we do not know the specifics regarding the "environmental issues" with the Waukegan site. It could be something that in reality is minor and could be remedied cheaply (NEW BATHTUB), but because of regulatory inflexibility, you end up with a huge bill. So, back to the house example, rather than a house with old wiring and plumbing, you have a vacant house with old wiring, old plumbing and a leaky tub.
I think you have far too much faith in persons in appointed positions in government.

[Bill Coomes]

Stu,

Let's look at the facts:

Which would you rather have?

An empty, contaminated plant sit vacant for years to come because it is owned by a bankrupt corporation that cannot pay for remediation nor can the property be sold due to the contamination (no lending entity will lend money on a contaminated site and it is unrealistic to think someone would pay cash). Or have the EPA Superfund come in and remediate if that's what's keeping Bombardier from re-opening the plant so that people can resume their employment which will make them consumers and taxpayers.

I think the choice is obvious. It is unfortunate that companies can pollute and walk away without remediating, but that is what we have today.

When I worked for the FDIC Division of Liquidation, one of the cases I had was an old factory. IBM printed government checks there for 50 years. Then it ceased operations. The ink and solvents used had contaminated the ground water. The bldg. was sold to a partnership, however the Bank financed the factory knowing that IBM was footing the bill for an on-going 30+ year remediation. Unfortunately, the partnership defaulted on the loan and the Bank also went belly-up. The partnership tried to deliver a deed-in-lieu to the FDIC, which it refused, which also would have put the FDIC on the hook for the remediation.

[Stu_Pedaso]

I definitely agree in principle. A vacant, ownerless factory does no one any good at all. To be honest, though, I would like a cost-benefit analysis done to see what the net result would be, so that a logical decision could be reached as to what should be done. Well intentioned regulations can go awry. Sometimes the situation tehy apply to makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. I've seen Material Safety Data Sheets attached to containers of water. I just read an interesting column titled "An Obituary for Common Sense". I would feel a whole lot better if I knew what exactly the extent of the contamination was, because the regulation to know the difference between 2 car batteries and three mile island.

"Sorry, a rule's a rule. No matter what the size, there was a spill here, the whole area needs to surveyed, excavated, treated, consulted, and resurfaced. Did you receive our flyer?"

[Bayside]

Stu have you ever been to a superfund site? Give me your address and i'll make sure you can take your whole family there for a picnic, just watch out for the guys in the level 5 hazmat suits!

[f3 Rider]

currently about 90 pecent of bombardiers small engine building is done in austria this is to the best of my knowledge anyway.

scott

[bob oh]

Stu, I agree the bureaucrats are a major problem. But then again, business has proven that when it is unregulated, it is a major problem. Just remember, the motor site did not get polluted by the EPA!!!!!! My son is in the clean-up business and he has shown me enough reports and photos and told me about his first-hand experience that I have been amazed at the incredible environmental damage humans will do for greed.
We need to work hard to keep the bureaucrats accountable, but we have to work just as hard to see that those who pollute are held accountable and pay the tab. Which, I guess, means that the money paid for OMC will be used to clean up any of their messes, right?
Bob

[Waz]

Living in the area I can assure you it is not a couple of batteries or tires. In the seventies the Waukegan harbor had the distinction having the greatest concentration of PCB'S
in the world. Lot's of cleaning to do. Lake Michigan's fish are full of it with health advisories. Unless the government takes an iniative to clean it up it will be with us for thousands of years. The pcb's were part of a lubricant that was used on the machinery into the seventies and dumped into and around the harbor.

[Paul H]

Work in one / at one every day....
Not al SF's are that hazardouse (TCE -BCE- Phenols in groundwater)