Workers restart their careers in a market where jobs, pay are often in flux

Caterpillar Inc. just offered Nick Wendt his old job back in South Milwaukee, three years after he was laid off.

Too late. Wendt has moved to southern California, works for a company that sells industrial tools and has no intention of going back to work at Caterpillar’s mining equipment plant in Wisconsin.

“It felt so good to tell them ‘no.’ That had been my goal all along,” said Wendt, who had made $38.50 an hour as a machinist and team leader at Caterpillar.

Wendt revised his career plan at a time when the job market was in a state of flux, much like it is now for others in Wisconsin.

After the layoff at Caterpillar, which affected hundreds of workers at the plant, he went on to become a service technician for Tornos, a Swiss company with operations in Chicago. Now, he’s a regional business manager in charge of the company’s West Coast sales.

Wendt said he doesn’t make as much money as he did at Caterpillar, but his new career has been a good fit, given his experience with factory machines.

“I have embraced the change. That was the hardest part, accepting the fact that I didn’t have this job in South Milwaukee anymore and I needed to do something else,” he said.

More than 1,400 factory workers in Wisconsin now face a similar dilemma with recent plant closings, or plant closing announcements, in the paper industry.

While the overall job market is strong, and some manufacturers are begging for help, finding positions that pay more than $15 to $18 an hour, with good benefits, can be challenging.

“Sure, there are jobs out there. But for me, at 50 years old, it’s like starting over with everything,” said Chris Britten who works at Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s plant in Neenah that’s slated to close in 18 months.

RELATED: Kimberly-Clark closing two Wisconsin plants, cutting 600 jobs

RELATED: Gov. Scott Walker: Give Kimberly-Clark Foxconn-style deal to keep paper plants open

Many large companies stand to benefit from the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law Dec. 22. That legislation slashed corporate tax rates and was aimed at encouraging companies to spend more on their U.S. operations and create jobs.

However, some criticized Kimberly-Clark for expecting higher profits from tax savings while, at the same time, eliminating thousands of jobs.

“It is simply wrong for the company to use corporate tax cuts to reward the wealth of its executives and shareholders through increased dividends and more stock buybacks, while closing facilities and laying off workers,” U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) wrote in a letter sent to Kimberly-Clark CEO Thomas Falk and the company’s board of directors.

Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Kleenex tissue and Huggies diapers that was founded in Wisconsin in the 19th century and still has a major presence in the state, said last month it plans to close two plants in the Fox Cities, resulting in the loss of more than 600 jobs.

The company previously announced a plan to cut as many as 5,000 jobs and to close or sell 10 plants globally. The job cuts represent about 12% to 13% of the company’s workforce.

In an email to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kimberly-Clark spokesman Terry Balluck said, “The decision to undertake this restructuring program was made independently and not as a result of the recently passed tax reform legislation.”

Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. recently announced it is shutting down its Kansas City, Mo., motorcycle assembly plant, eliminating 800 jobs there.

The world's largest maker of heavyweight motorcycles has struggled to reverse a four-year sales slide, with growth overseas helping to offset a decline in the U.S. bike market somewhat.

RELATED: Harley-Davidson to close Kansas City plant as profit drops sharply

Harley says it's moving the Kansas City work to the company's plant in York, Pa., and that will create about 400 jobs in York.

"This is more than just the shutdown of the Kansas City plant. We will be investing to expand our operations in York," said Harley CEO Matt Levatich.

Harley’s Kansas City workforce includes employees who landed their jobs when the plant opened about 20 years ago.

The plant has met every goal the company has set, such as the successful launch of new bikes, said Tim Primeaux, a welder at the plant for 17 years.

“We put forth the extra effort, and it went unnoticed,” he said.

Union officials said they’re meeting with the company Monday.

“We are working extremely hard to convince the leadership to keep the plant open,” said Robert Martinez Jr., president of the Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union.

“Kansas City is suffering the consequences, in my opinion, of Harley-Davidson’s continued neglect of its North American workforce and ridership,” he added.

Still, even if the plant closes, Primeaux said, employees should be able to find other jobs without much difficulty.

“The job market here in Kansas City is strong, and everybody in this facility is trained well,” he said.

In Milwaukee, Badger Meter Inc. employee Leonard Jozefacki says he can relate to losing a job.

It’s happened to him several times in his career in manufacturing, including a three-year layoff in the 1980s — not from Badger Meter — and the loss of a 10-year job he had at Milwaukee Tool Co.

Jozefacki has been a machinist at Badger Meter since 2002.

“I would say just don’t give up and continue to have faith. You have to keep believing in yourself, and continue to look for a job because, eventually, you will land one that’s going to be good for you,” he said.

Badger Meter CEO Richard Meeusen says he understands why some people feel whipsawed by companies that vacillate between job fairs and layoffs.

“We are slow to hire, but when we bring someone on, we want (them) to know that we are bringing them on for the rest of their career,” he said.

Still, Meeusen said, companies sometimes close plants for competitive and efficiency reasons.

“Right now, we are moving jobs from Scottsdale (Ariz.) to Racine. … In Scottsdale, that community is not very happy with us,” he said.

Badger Meter’s future effective tax rates are likely to be reduced from approximately 36% to 24%, according to Meeusen.

“That’s a good drop. It will generate additional cash for us,” he said.

“We intend to use that additional cash to invest in our business. We are looking at some strategic acquisitions, and it means upgrading our machinery, equipment and facilities.”

RELATED: Badger Meter benefits from new-technology products, lower tax rate

Some companies will use the savings from lower taxes to pay bonuses to executives and hourly employees, but don’t expect hiring sprees, said George Reis, president of GVR Investment Management in Two Rivers.

Reis has seen hundreds of jobs in his area disappear from Manitowoc Co. moving manufacturing out of Wisconsin.

He’s seen it from other companies, too.

“I think what’s really significant is that these were high-paying jobs with benefits,” he said.

Barry Thompson was one of the Manitowoc Co. workers left jobless when the company moved its ice-machine manufacturing to Monterrey, Mexico, a few years ago.

The company said it would be able to better serve customers in Latin America and the United States, especially California, Texas, Florida and other southern states.

Still, employees were blindsided by the move.

Thompson had worked at the Manitowoc plant for 32 years in metal fabrication and had never planned to go anywhere else.

Years ago, he said, “there was no turnover. Once you got a job, you stayed.”

Now, Thompson, 56, is a student at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, where he’s learning skills that ought to be useful in the gas utilities industry.

He will graduate this spring.

“Going back to school was a little scary at first. But once I got going, it was alright. I actually enjoyed it,” Thompson said.