“It’s a game of screwing workers, busting unions and racing to the bottom for wages and benefits.”

Appleton, Wis. – Outagamie County Executive and pro-labor U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson condemned the union-busting closure of the 120-year-old Day Street paper mill in Green Bay announced Thursday by Koch Industries-owned Georgia-Pacific. The mill is the only unionized Koch Industries plant in Wisconsin. Nelson termed moves by greedy corporations who fire unionized workers and ship jobs elsewhere as “Johnsonomics” in homage to Ron Johnson infamously saying, “Wisconsin has enough jobs” when asked why he didn’t care 1000 union jobs at Oshkosh Defense were moving to South Carolina to build the next generation of Postal Service trucks. Nelson said:

“‘Johnsonomics’ strikes Wisconsin again, as another corporation stabs workers in the back after profiting from their labor. Green Bay at one point was the “Toilet Paper Capital of the World.” It was proud of that title AND the good union jobs and wages the industry provided. The Day Street mill has been around since 1901, and has given Green Bay something to be proud of in addition to their Green Bay Packers titles.

“You can see the handiwork of Johnsonomics everywhere in our state. It’s a game of screwing workers, busting unions and racing to the bottom for wages and benefits and allowing critical domestic manufacturing to leave town.

“I worked with management and labor to help SAVE a paper mill and its jobs in my own home community. In the Senate, I will make sure that we do everything we can to prevent corporations like Georgia-Pacific or Oshkosh Defense from engaging in the types of union-busting betrayals applauded by Ron Johnson that leave Wisconsin communities weaker.”

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