Master Lock’s Milwaukee plant to close after 100 years and send jobs abroad

‘Only holdout’ in area that used to house over 50 manufacturing firms to halt operations in March 2024 with over 400 jobs lost

For over 100 years, the Master Lock plant in Milwaukee manufactured locks and security products. Now, what was for years the last remaining large manufacturing holdout on the north side of Milwaukee’s industrial sector, is being shut down after the company informed employees a phased shutdown will begin on 31 October 2023, with final operations halting by March 2024.

The plant employed more than 1,100 employees in the 1990s but the number of employees in the plant fell to about 270 in 2003 as Master Lock began offshoring jobs to Mexico and China.