Carl Kiekhaefer and the History of Mercury Marine

[skialot2]

Found this video on YouTube. Probably been posted before, but, so what I thought it was cool.

Carl Kiekhaefer and the History of Mercury Marine

[rock]

That was pretty cool. If you really want to know the history get the book "Iron Fist". The book is huge and the story is great. The man had talent for sure and also a demon or two.

Rock

[WaterZebra]

Found this video on YouTube. Probably been posted before, but, so what I thought it was cool.

Carl Kiekhaefer and the History of Mercury Marine

I have never heard anything on S&F from former or retired employees of Mercury Marine on whether their pay, benefits or retirement pension plans were as extravagant as the owner was?

[Mark Poole ModVP]

I think I read somewhere in the book that Carl's employees, especially the ones who had stuck with him from the early years were treated well. Not sure if there were company wide benefits.

[bernie]

I have never heard anything on S&F from former or retired employees of Mercury Marine on whether their pay, benefits or retirement pension plans were as extravagant as the owner was?

I was there for 42 years, many positions inside and in the field. Started in 1965, we had to be 30 to get in the retirement plan. I was 20 so my first 10 years didn't count for anything. The retirement plan also had a 30 year cap for a multiplier, I did mange to max that out before they gave me a package in late 2005. The union guys did not have a cap, I had high school friends who spent 42 years working in the plants, and their retirement was the same as mine, for putting motors in the box for 40 years! Raises were a joke, a percent or two if you were lucky or your boss liked you, it was all political. My last year as a Field Engineer, beteeen working tournaments and dealer meetings, I spent 20 weekends away from home that summer - and my increase that year was a wopping .09%. We did have a fairly good benefits plan medical and dental. In 2005 the company stopped the retirement plan, it was up to you to get a 401K going. I was one of the last to get the retirement plan and max out the 30 year cap. So for 20 years since they send me a check every month, that's nice. There was a huge gap in salaries beteeen upper management and the peon class, I also made a director position once, starting pay was 6 figures!

[WaterZebra]

I was there for 42 years, many positions inside and in the field. Started in 1965, we had to be 30 to get in the retirement plan. I was 20 so my first 10 years didn't count for anything. The retirement plan also had a 30 year cap for a multiplier, I did mange to max that out before they gave me a package in late 2005. The union guys did not have a cap, I had high school friends who spent 42 years working in the plants, and their retirement was the same as mine, for putting motors in the box for 40 years! Raises were a joke, a percent or two if you were lucky or your boss liked you, it was all political. My last year as a Field Engineer, beteeen working tournaments and dealer meetings, I spent 20 weekends away from home that summer - and my increase that year was a wopping .09%. We did have a fairly good benefits plan medical and dental. In 2005 the company stopped the retirement plan, it was up to you to get a 401K going. I was one of the last to get the retirement plan and max out the 30 year cap. So for 20 years since they send me a check every month, that's nice. There was a huge gap in salaries beteeen upper management and the peon class, I also made a director position once, starting pay was 6 figures!

The over 30 threshold is interesting. Not much incentive to work there while under 30? If I remember "Iron Fist" correctly, Carl hated unions. Boeing made the pension animal extinct after 2005 but made really good rates of co-pay on employees 401K. Today, workers who scream for pensions are the ones who never bothered to save any money. Boeing St. Louis IAM just rejected their contract offer of 20% over 3 years. This is probably because of fear that the military contracts will be cancelled in 3 years (Trump).