Master Lock's Milwaukee plant to close after 100 years and send jobs abroad

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Master Lock’s Milwaukee plant to close after 100 years and send jobs abroad

‘Only holdout’ in area that used to house over 50 manufacturing firms to halt operations in March 2024 with over 400 jobs lost

Michael Sainato
@msainat1
Thu 29 Jun 2023 11.00 BST
Last modified on Thu 29 Jun 2023 11.31 BST

For over 100 years, the Master Lock plant in Milwaukee manufactured locks and security products. Now, what was for years the last remaining large manufacturing holdout on the north side of Milwaukee’s industrial sector, is being shut down after the company informed employees a phased shutdown will begin on 31 October 2023, with final operations halting by March 2024.

The plant employed more than 1,100 employees in the 1990s but the number of employees in the plant fell to about 270 in 2003 as Master Lock began offshoring jobs to Mexico and China.

That policy was reversed a few years later and then president Barack Obama visited the plant in February 2012, praising the company for reshoring jobs from China back to the US. Employment at the plant rebounded to more than 370 jobs by the end of 2010 and ticked up to 412 jobs in 2012.

Now employees noted the work will be sent abroad to Mexico and China again, where Master Lock has manufacturing plants. A subsidiary of Fortune Brands Innovations, Master Lock reported a record revenue of $860m in 2022 and its parent company has noted in investor materials plans to boost profits from $50m to $75m through “footprint improvements” that include the closure of the plant.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/29/master-lock-milwaukee-plant-closure-manufacturing-holdout

No-registration link: https://archive.fo/EAt5D

[Emile]

1. I'm sure they say this makes them more competitive

in the marketplace. How much you want to bet they don't drop the price of locks.

[Auggie]

2. I'm sure this makes their stockholders happy