Weather Shield May Swap Closures, Park Falls Stays Open

A home window business with four mills and hundreds of employees in Wisconsin has reached an agreement to keep one factory open but another remains on the bubble.

Two weeks ago, union workers at the Weather Shield Window facility in Park Falls agreed to take a pay freeze to keep their plant open. Weather Shield had already announced it would close the mill, laying off all 152 workers. Teamsters 662 Business Manager Rick Skutak says a joint effort by the workers, company, and state incentives will keep the Park Falls mill open.

“Nobody ever likes to make a concession or take a wage freeze, but the company has proven to us and the State of Wisconsin that they've lost millions and millions of dollars. If you look at the industry as a whole, they're not alone. The window and door industry is teetering on the edge,” Skutak says.

But it’s a different story at the Weather Shield Mill in Mosinee. Carpenters Industrial Council Union Business Representative Gig Christenson says his union workers rejected a contract that would have ended paid holidays, frozen pay and stopped company 401K contributions. He says company officials say they’ll close that plant, costing 500 employees their jobs. But so far, no announcement.

“Yeah, we’ve got everyone informed. Told them to go to work, be productive. When we hear something, you’ll hear something. That’s more or less where it’s at,” Christenson says.

Christenson says they were told the announcement would come last Tuesday.

State Senator Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) says this is a battle for many communities these days not so much to create new jobs but to keep the employers they have. He says the Park Falls mill accounts for 30 percent of all private sector jobs there.

“So it would have been a terrible blow to that community and I’m grateful it’s staying open and we’ll do everything we can to try to pull the pieces together and be supportive of the employees and employers,” Jauch says.

Park Falls Mayor Tom Ratzlaff says it took a joint effort by the workers, company, and state to keep making vinyl windows there.

“Knowing that you got things going again or staying going, it takes a lot of pressure off. Hopefully it will give people a sigh of relief. Nothing’s really rosy but I mean it’s certainly a lot better than what it was,” Ratzlaff says.

Company officials have not returned our phone calls. Weather Shield Windows also has non-union mills in Ladysmith and Medford.