Master Lock Set To Close Milwaukee Plant, Outsource Jobs: Reports

MILWAUKEE, WI — The Master Lock manufacturing plant on Milwaukee's north side is expected to close in the coming years with hundreds of jobs being outsourced, according to multiple media reports.

A representative from the company told WISN12 the facility at 32nd and Center Streets is set to close in the spring of 2024 amid a transition to other manufacturing options.

United Auto Workers Region 4, which represents employees at the plant, said 330 jobs will be killed in Milwaukee with the plan. In a Facebook post, the local union said it is "disgusted."

The union said workers were informed on Wednesday "that their jobs would be outsourced beginning this fall, 102 years after the company was founded, in Milwaukee."

Mayor Cavalier Johnson told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "It is a slap in the face to the hardworking Milwaukee employees."

Master Lock is headquartered in Oak Creek, and at its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, the 32nd Street facility employed 1,300, according to an online encyclopedia maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.