Wisconsin workers fight factory move to Mexico: ‘Anxiety is through the roof’

After Opengate Capital acquired Hufcor, a company in Janesville that treated people like they were family', it announced plans to move 166 jobs to Mexico

For most of her 36 years at the Hufcor factory in Janesville, Wisconsin, Kathy Pawluk loved working there, at least until a private-equity firm took over four years ago. There were Christmas parties and summer picnics, and workers could listen to the radio as they built accordion-style room partitions for convention centers and hotel ballrooms.

They treated people like they were family, not a number," said Pawluk, 62. We had the best health benefits. We had HR people who really cared about us."