For over years, the Master Lock plant in Milwaukee manufactured locks and security products. The plant employed more than 1, employees in the s but the number of employees in the plant fell to about in 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 , praising the company for reshoring jobs from China back to the US. Employment at the plant rebounded to more than jobs by the end of and ticked up to jobs in Now employees noted the work will be sent abroad to Mexico and China again, where Master Lock has manufacturing plants.
Although I think anger will hang around for an unusually long period of time. Workers at the plant have been unionized since the s, he said.
He worked at the plant when workers there went on strike in and explained after that strike Master Lock brought in new management. The union and company had a good working relationship until the s when outsourcing from the plant began, said Bink.
He said the union is still pushing for more information before beginning bargaining on the effects of the closure. Bink explained the neighborhood where the Master Lock plant resides on the north side of Milwaukee used to be the site of over 50 major manufacturing firms, but over the past decades, those plants shut down. The union, workers and local elected officials have criticized the plant closure announcement and have held rallies pushing for the company to reverse their decision.
