Wisconsin workers fight factory move to Mexico: 'Anxiety is through the roof'

[Jilly_in_VA]

For most of her 36 years at the Hufcor factory in Janesville, Wisconsin, Kathy Pawluk loved working there, at least until a private-equity firm took over four years ago. There were Christmas parties and summer picnics, and workers could listen to the radio as they built accordion-style room partitions for convention centers and hotel ballrooms.

“They treated people like they were family, not a number,” said Pawluk, 62. “We had the best health benefits. We had HR people who really cared about us.”

But Pawluk said things deteriorated soon after OpenGate Capital acquired Hufcor, a family-owned company founded in Janesville 120 years ago. “They basically told us ‘We don’t want to get to know you’ in so many words,” Pawluk said.

In late May, things took a turn for the worse. The company announced it was shuttering the sprawling plant and moving operations to Monterrey, Mexico, wiping out the jobs of 166 workers.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/18/hufcor-factory-janesivlle-wisconsin-opengate-capital
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Republican plutocrats, turning the US in to a s-hole country, one plant at a time

[gratuitous]

1. Does the Wisconsin Legislature know about this?

I'm sure they'll get right on this on behalf of working Wisconsinites, yes?

[LakeArenal]

5. Has to be irony cuz. No.

[11 Bravo]

7. No worries. They're still rolling in the astronomical wealth delivered ...

to the state by that very stable genius and master businessman Donnie Bonespurs with his big, beautiful Foxconn deal.

Wait ... what?

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. In that case

they should not be acting like greedy old RepubliCONs.

[onethatcares]

4. for the wealthy there's no allegiance

to anything but more money.

ain't never enough and you can read about how it's never changed throughout the ages.

The O'Jays had a song about that in the 70s.

Money, money, money money, ............money...

[Klaralven]

6. The building was sold in August 2020

305,000 SF HUFCOR FACILITY SELLS FOR $7.9 MILLION

https://mcguiremearsassociates-janesville-wi.cbcworldwide.com/news/305000-sf-hufcor-facility-sells-for-7-9-million

They make "operable partitions and glass walls", e.g. the sort of thing that hotels use to divide ballrooms into smaller conference and meeting rooms.

[dalton99a]

8. Private equity means kiss your job goodbye