MILWAUKEE — Shockwaves are still being felt after Master Lock’s announcement they are closing their Milwaukee plant for good.
The ramp-down of 330 jobs at the plant begins in October, with the final closure in March 2024.
Gov. Tony Evers says it is still hard to understand why the company is pulling the rug out from under a city where this company was founded more than a century ago, “It is a sign of the times unfortunately that profits overtake the needs of the workers.”
A sentiment DiAndre Jackson echoes, who has dedicated 16 years with Master Lock as a machinist, saying, “There's a lot of people who won’t make that somewhere else.”
A spokesperson for Master Lock released a statement Thursday which read in part, “This is an opportunity to… maximize potential growth of the business and maintain our competitiveness into the future.”
Lucas DeSpain representing Master Lock’s Union region 4, UAW sent us a statement which read in part Friday, “The only thing missing from their press release was an emoji of them flipping off the American worker…”
The union also claimed those hundreds of high-paying jobs like engineers and machinists leaving Milwaukee will go to Mexico. We asked Master Lock for comment, and have not heard back.
Gov. Evers says, “Right now it's a grieving process, which is unfortunate but we'll be actively involved but these decisions are not made at the state level, and I'll express my disappointment.”
As treasurer of the workers union, Jackson says he is working hard to ensure every worker at Master Lock is given a fair severance package no matter how long they have been with the company, “For years of service so you’re not just out in the wind and go work somewhere else. People build their lives around their job.”
A manufacturing giant in our city’s Metcalfe Park neighborhood that will soon be deserted.
