ATK Accessories-Eagle Industries To Cut 130 Jobs In Onalaska (Wisconsin)

Another defense war contractor is making cutbacks. Here is The Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee with the details:

ATK Accessories-Eagle Industries plans to shutter its plant in Onalaska, leaving 130 workers without jobs.

The layoffs are expected to take place between June 4 and June 15, according to a plant closing notice filed Thursday with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

The company indicated that it plans to relocate five employees.

ATK Accessories-Eagle Industries is a manufacturer of nylon gear and equipment for military, homeland security and law enforcement agencies. The products include tactical assault vests, load-bearing equipment, weapon transporting gear, holsters and personal gear carriers.

And so it goes.


Bonus: The BoDeans are from just outside Milwaukee

146 Workers To Be Laid Off At Joerns Plant In Stevens Point (Wisconsin)

This was yet another mass layoff story from the healthcare industry. Here is a local Wisconsin radio station with the (admittedly few) details:

A Stevens Point medical supply company announced they'd be laying off 146 employees.

Reports say Joerns Healthcare will start those layoffs in June. The department of workforce development announced the mass layofffs today. Joerns said in a statement back in January that the jobs in Stevens Point would be moving out of state to Texas, Mexico and Arkansas.

The company says it will keep several employees in Point to provide customer and technical support and to design and develop products.

And so it goes.


Bonus: Did you all know that Stevie "Guitar" Miller is from Wisconsin?

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Wisconsin) To Lay Off 150

There wasn't a lot of detail to go with this mass layoff notice. Here is htrnews.com with the story:

Thermo Fisher Scientific gave official notice Tuesday that layoffs at its downtown manufacturing facility likely will begin on May 12.

The layoffs of approximately 150 employees are expected to be completed within six months and will be permanent.

Thermo Fisher announced in December that it would be closing the wood manufacturing plant at 1316 18th St., after announcing the closure of its Columbus Street steel manufacturing plant about two months earlier.

Although I take note of this tidbit from the December story:

Around 190 additional workers in Two Rivers will be looking for jobs next year. The second of two manufacturing plants owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific, the lab equipment maker is closing. Earlier this year, the company said it was closing its steel manufacturing plant by year’s end and moving the jobs to Mexico. Around 120 workers were affected. Jobs from the now closing wood manufacturing plant are being moved to Texas. “Our leadership team continuously evaluates our business operations in an effort to increase efficiencies and improve our global competitive position," Thermo Fisher Scientific Director of public relations Ron O'Brien said in the press release. The company says about 150 non-manufacturing jobs will remain in Two Rivers.

So I guess it isn't too hard to conclude that globalization and corporate greed are the (usual) suspects here.

HP Enterprise To Eliminate Nearly 160 Positions In Madison, Milwaukee

This layoff notice article from a local Wisconsin radio station did not say so, but I gather these job losses resulted from the recent cutback in Medicaid and Medicare payments:

The largest private company in Wisconsin that helps run the state’s Medicaid programs will eliminate almost 160 jobs.

HP Enterprise Services has told state officials it will cut 134 positions in Madison and 23 in Milwaukee. The layoffs will occur between late April and late August.

Most of the jobs are clerical, and HP says some of the affected workers could get new jobs with the company.

It’s the state’s largest private vendor for Medicaid programs that serve well over a million poor and elderly clients in Wisconsin.

Not that it really means anything, but these will count as "private sector" layoffs, when clearly these jobs would not have existed in the first place without the two giant government programs. Something to keep in mind whenever a commentator talks about private versus public sector employment as if the former is somehow more noble than the latter. In the end, you're little people either way.


Bonus: Did someone say "Enterprise?" Ha! Gives me an excuse to post this awesome parody video

Flights By U.S. Airlines Hit 10-Year Low

More signs of trouble in the airline industry were reported this week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Frontier Airlines will cut nearly 500 Milwaukee employees - nearly half of them flight crew members based at Mitchell International Airport - as a result of a major service reduction here.

Those job cuts will occur in April, according to information Frontier filed Monday with the state Department of Workforce Development under the state's layoff notice law.

Frontier said 446 employees will be affected by the cuts, to occur between April 15 and April 30. About 230 employees are flight crew members who will be reassigned to bases outside Milwaukee, the company said in its filing.

Denver-based Frontier has about 1,000 employees based in Milwaukee.

Many of the flight crews don't live in the Milwaukee area, commuting here via flights from around the country. But other employees - including maintenance workers, gate agents and baggage handlers - live in southeastern Wisconsin.

The news comes just four days after Frontier announced it will eliminate five nonstop routes from Milwaukee. Those cuts will reduce daily departures out of Mitchell International from 32 to 18.

Effective April 16, the company will suspend nonstop flights from Milwaukee to Dallas/Fort Worth, Grand Rapids, Mich., Kansas City, Mo., Philadelphia and Phoenix. In addition, Milwaukee-to-Newark, N.J., service will be suspended effective April 1.

Cutting flights are they? There is only one reason why they would do that...air travel is on the wane and they can no longer make money with the high price of aviation fuel. The past half-century or so of routine middle class air travel is quickly drawing to a close. In not too many years, it will be exclusively the privilege of the wealthy...before that inevitable day when it becomes just another forlorn and rapidly fading memory from the all-to-brief age of petroleum.


Addendum: After I wrote the initial post, I came across this article from Reuters, which pretty well spells out what is happening in the airline industry:

U.S. airlines in 2011 operated the fewest number of flights since the hijack attacks on New York and Washington depressed air travel and accelerated the industry's worst-ever financial downturn, government figures on Tuesday showed.

The Transportation Department said major airlines, their chief low-cost competitors and the biggest regional carriers, recorded 6.08 million departures last year. Takeoffs were not that low since 2002, when they totaled 5.27 million.

Reduced operations and good summer weather, especially in the East, helped airlines post a 79 percent on-time rating in 2011, unchanged from the previous two years.

The overall number of flights by U.S. airlines have steadily declined since 2008 when the recession dampened travel demand. Most recently, stubbornly high fuel prices have prompted airlines to further cut capacity to reduce costs and maintain higher fares.

So tell me some more about that alleged economic recovery we are now experiencing. I love fairy tales.


Bonus: No disrespect to Peter, Paul and Mary, but a lot of people don't realize it was actually John Denver who wrote this song

C&D Technologies to Lay Off 120 in Milwaukee

Looks like we can gain blame globalization and "free" trade for this layoff notice, as reported by BizTimes.com:

C&D Technologies Inc. will relocate some of production from its Milwaukee facility to a plant in Reynosa, Mexico.

While the Milwaukee facility will remain, the move eliminates 120 local jobs. About 100 employees will remain at the plant, 900 E. Keefe Ave.

The corporate FlackSpeak is strong with this one:

The company completed a comprehensive business evaluation and cited “intense competitive pricing pressure” as the reason for moving its power system product lines to Mexico. C&D said many of its competitors have also moved production to Mexico for cost reasons.

“This was a difficult decision but one that is sound and will allow us to continue production in Milwaukee,” said Jeffrey Graves, C&D president and chief executive officer. “Over the last five years, we have invested over $20 million to modernize our Milwaukee facility, streamline production, remove costs and improve efficiencies. Over the past several months, we were able to structure a solution that keeps C&D here and will help us realize those efficiencies. We’ve been a part of this community since 1999, and my hope is that we will be able to continue to make a business case for staying in Milwaukee in the years to come.”

You know what else would have allowed you to continue production in Milwaukee, asshole? Not moving your production to Mexico just so you can line your golden parachute.

Bonus: "She hit me with technology"

Brokaw Paper Mill (Wisconsin) Closing; Approximately 500 to Be Laid Off

This layoff notice from a local Wisconsin radio station was about as basic and unempathetic as any I've seen yet:

The layoffs have started at the Brokaw Paper Mill.

Wausau Paper laid off 310 employees today. The workers are directly involved in the paper manufacturing process. The actual paper-making at the mill came to an end earlier this week.

About 125 workers remain at the mill. They’ll cut and assemble the paper that was made during the last production run. They will be laid off too when their work is done. Only a handful will be employed through March to shut down and disassemble the mill’s machinery.

Wausau Paper completed the sale of its color paper division to Neenah Paper last month. The company announced in December that the Brokaw mill would be shut down. All operations at the mill will end in March.

And that was it. Amazing how 500 people can be cast out into this cold, hard economy with so little fanfare.


Bonus: "So many changes...so many lies"

Sub Zero to Close Madison Plant; 100 Will Lose Jobs

image: Yep..that's a fridge. And if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

I actually have a couple of in-laws who work as repairmen for Sub-Zero refrigerators. If you aren't familiar with the brand, that's likely because you haven't ever spent upwards of $15,000 or more to buy a refrigerator. Seriously, Fifteen Large to buy a freaking icebox. Yes, they are very much toys of the one-percenters. It cracks me up that my relatives actually work full time repairing the damn things. For that kind of scratch, you'd think they would last forever.

My family members will not, however, be affected by the announcement that the Sub-Zero plant in Madison, Wisconsin, is about to be closed down. Here is the Wisconsin State Journal with the details:

Sub-Zero said 100 workers at its Madison plant will lose their jobs by the end of June.

The privately owned company, which makes upscale refrigerators and stoves, sent a letter to state and city officials Tuesday saying it will close operations at 4717 Hammersley Road on June 29.

Okay, that's bad...but this is the real kicker:

Goodspeed said the workers affected earn $22 an hour, or about $30 an hour, including benefits.

"Some of these workers — they're having a tough time dealing with this. These are good-paying jobs. They know similar pay and similar benefits are not waiting for them on the outside," he said.

Goodspeed said up to now, the union has helped 20 other workers from the Madison plant find jobs in Fitchburg, where about 300 employees make Sub-Zero built-in freezers and refrigerators and 200 produce Wolf ranges and cooktops. He said he hopes some of the remaining employees can also be shifted to Fitchburg.

Though they are not new, the job cuts are still hard to swallow, Goodspeed said, especially with concessions employees took in order to keep their work here. Bitterly fought contract agreements, reached over the past year and a half, cost union members 20 percent of their pay and benefits and froze wages for five years but promised to keep their jobs until at least 2018.

"There's still a great deal of animosity out on the floor," Goodspeed said. "It's very hard for some people to move beyond."

See, it doesn't even matter if you as an employee or union member are willing to make concessions and give up part of your benefits and pay. Sooner or later the axe will fall anyway.


Bonus: We are in fact NOT going to be saved by zero

Mayville Products Corp. To Close Wisconsin Plant - 130 Jobs Lost

This plant closing/layoffs announcement from The Business Journal was quite straightforward as these things go:

Mayville Products Corp. plans to close its factory in Mayville in Dodge County, leaving 130 workers without jobs.

The layoffs are expected to occur between March 19 and March 30, according to a plant closing notice filed Thursday with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

The sheet metal fabricating plant, 403 Degner Ave., is expected to permanently close on March 30.

“We are very sorry that business conditions have forced us to take this action,” the notice states.

Gee...no bullshit spin, no lame excuses for off shoring jobs to China--just a plain, simple, "business sucks, we're outta here." That was almost perversely refreshing.

Weather Shield to Close Window and Door Plant in Wisconsin

Sorry, Wisconsin, but even if your attempted recall of your idiot governor is successful, as reported last week by Woodworking Network, it isn't going to help these people:

MOSINEE, WI -- Weather Shield's factory dedicated to vinyl window and door production here in Mosinee will permanently close by Aug. 31, putting more than 500 people out of work.

Workers, many of them members of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, were informed of the decision by Schield Family Brands to shutter the plant last month. Layoffs are to begin Feb. 7 and continue through the summer as operations are scaled back and then ceased. Schield of Medford, OR, is parent company to Weathershield, SNE Enterprises and Peachtree Doors and Windows.

Central Wisconsin Business reported that Schield cited the ongoing housing crisis and refusal of union workers to extend its current contract, including accepting a pay freeze, as major factors in deciding to close the plant.

And the housing crash carnage just keeps on piling up, even as the mainstream media acts as if it is yesterday's news. You residents of The Badger State should stop worrying about that largely meaningless political kabuki theater show going on in Madison and instead look around at what is happening to your economic livelihoods. Scott Walker may by a psychopathic asshole who hates unions, but even so he wasn't the one responsible for closing this factory down. The corporate flacks are trying to blame the union, but ultimately it is the economy that's responsible.