Wisconsin workers fight factory move to Mexico: 'Anxiety is through the roof'
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.
“They told us, ‘We can make a lot more money in Mexico. The labor is too high here. Parts cost too much here,’” Pawluk said “They’ll get away with paying dirt wages in Mexico.” Until she was laid off last week, she earned $20.92. Union officials now estimate that Hufcor’s workers in Mexico will make less than one-fifth that.
“I wasn’t so worried about myself. I’m close to retirement,” Pawluk said. “I’m more worried about the others. The rest of us are like family. We know each other’s kids. We know each other’s grandkids. Some friends have 30 years in, and they’re now forced to find another job. That sucks.”
The workers and their union – the IUE-CWA, the industrial division of the Communications Workers of America – sprang into action to try to get OpenGate to reverse itself. They held protests that called OpenGate a “vampire” private-equity company. They asked lawmakers to pressure Los Angeles-based OpenGate. They ran a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times. They framed things as greedy Wall Street against needy Main Street.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/18/hufcor-factory-janesivlle-wisconsin-opengate-capital
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