Wednesday, July 20, 2011

It's All the Unions' Fault! Part IV (A) - M & I Edition: The Sequel*

Last night I wrote about the hypocrisy of people like Scott Walker blaming the unions for our economic woes while his supporters at M&I Bank were walking away with tens of millions of our tax dollars and without paying off the TARP money they took to supposedly help keep the economy afloat.

Today, the news broke about how their theft is really going to "help" the working people of the state:
About 475 employees, including 100 in the Milwaukee area, will lose their jobs in the wake of the acquisition of Marshall & Ilsley Corp. by the parent company of Harris Bank.

The job reductions will occur over the next four months, Jim Kappel, a spokesman for BMO Harris Bank, said Wednesday.

The M&I and Harris brand names will become BMO Harris when Toronto-based BMO Financial Group completes the integration of the two banks in about 18 months.

Kappel said close to half of the 100 people losing jobs in the Milwaukee area are expected to be offered jobs with one of BMO's vendors. The jobs are mostly in security and human resources.

Milwaukee-based M&I had about 4,300 employees in southeastern Wisconsin at the time the $4.1 billion acquisition proposal was announced last December. The transaction closed on July 5.

The other job reductions will take place across BMO's entire Midwest territory, and about 75 are related to the closing of 13 branches, including one in Wisconsin. BMO said those branch closings aren't a direct result of the merger, but had been planned by M&I and Harris before the acquisition.
Yuppers, it's the unions' faulth, right Scotty?

*Alternative title: Walker's Budget's Already At Work: Part Whatever

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