It was announced this morning that the Ariens Company out of Brillion was laying off an unspecified number of workers.
We were able to speak with one of those workers, Regan McIver, who was working the weekend shift in Plant 1.
She told us that while the phone call letting them know they were out of a job came out of the blue, the workers in the plant had rumored it to be coming.
“For the last probably 4 to 6 weeks, they have come in and would be like ‘Hey, the welders don’t have any work this weekend so you guys can jump on a laser or break press and do something, or you can get paid for two hours and then you can go home,’” she explained. “And then, two weekends ago, they laid off our welder. So we are like ‘That’s probably not a good sign.’”
Then, McIver tells us the cycle began with the rest of the weekend staff.
“Last weekend, they sent us a text and they said ‘Hey. There is no work for you guys this weekend. You will get compensated for the weekend,’” she revealed. “Then yesterday (Monday) she called and said ‘This will be your last day.’”
McIver tells us that there were 14 or 15 people on her shift in her plant that all got the same call and a similar number from a different plant were also laid off.
In a public statement, the Ariens Company said that the reason for the layoffs was due to the expansion of the 1st shift output.
They also noted that there are “roughly 100 positions open for impacted employees to consider”, which McIver tells us she is taking advantage of.
As for her opinion towards her employer, McIver said “I don’t feel any different toward them…Whenever they open the plant in Tennessee, work has to go there, so it makes sense.”
