Milwaukee BizTimes, reporter Steve Jagler says it may be years before any Wisconsin jobs are created by the proposed iron ore mine in northwestern Wisconsin simply because there is a glut of iron on the market and as a result the industry is at a virtual standstill. Approving the mine may have been a priority for this Legislature, but there will be along wait ahead.
Our current iron glut did get a few mentions during the mining debate, but conveniently got lost along the way.
What we're seeing in real time is disaster capitalism. Republicans took immediate advantage of the Great Recession, something they created, and falsely promised thousands of new mining jobs. Well, we now have lax mining regulations, but no jobs in sight...for years. This is all an effort to hide Walker's failures. The jobs truth?
Cap Times-Jack Craver: Marquette University Law School pollster Charles Franklin further identified a fact that both Democrats and Republicans are uncomfortable confronting, but which, at the very least, is no help to Walker: Slightly more jobs were created in the last year of Gov. Jim Doyle's administration than in any year of the Walker administration. But only a few more.
Another Walker priority that in reality, wasn't:
The slowdown is taking a toll on Milwaukee-based Joy Global Inc., which manufactures mining equipment. In the company’s most recent quarterly report, Joy Global CEO Mike Sutherlin said prices for industrial metals and bulk commodities have declined by 20 to 40 percent over the last 18 months. Lower pricing is making higher-cost mines uneconomical and will result in closures that will rebalance the market, Sutherlin said. “For the first time in over a decade, global capacity has caught up with demand and most mine commodities are in surplus.”
The slowdown caused Joy Global’s quarterly orders to slide 36 percent from the same period a year ago. The global commodity glut also is taking a similar toll on Caterpillar Global Mining & Equipment, which laid off about 260 employees at its South Milwaukee production plant in June and announced two one-week furloughs for nearly all employees at the plant.
It should be noted that Republicans refused to allow any language in the bill guaranteeing that jobs would go to Wisconsin residents. So possibly even fewer jobs for Wisconsin residents than this report is indicating.
ReplyDeleteQuite so, Sue: the relevant item is Senate Amendment 19 to Senate Substitute Amendment 2 of the bill: https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/proposals/sb1
ReplyDelete"Each person extracting ferrous metallic minerals from a mine in this state shall hire only Wisconsin residents to work at the
mine site."
Which was voted down by all Republicans but Schultz.