Pace Industries in Grafton announces it will lay off 90 workers beginning in June

Pace Industries, a North American leader in full-service aluminum, zinc and magnesium die casting, announced its intention to lay off 90 workers at its Grafton facility.

CEO Doug Albert submitted a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification letter with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development that this layoff is more than 25% of its employees at its 1600 Seventh Ave. facility.

He wrote in the letter that terminations are expected to occur June 15, or within two weeks after that date. Albert also wrote the company anticipates the layoffs will be permanent.

Albert, in the WARN letter, wrote the employees affected by the layoffs are not represented by a union and are not entitled to bumping rights, where displaced employees are offered another position. The letter also outlined the layoffs will at first affect 44 employees and then occur in phases. Albert said Pace Industries will provide updates if additional layoffs are needed.

In the WARN letter, Albert said the reason for these intended layoffs is, "Pace (Industries) has suffered a loss of production work at its Grafton location."

Pace is headquartered in Michigan, and according to its website, it has 18 manufacturing facilities and 4,000 associates across the United States and Mexico. The Grafton facility, according to its website, is its only facility in Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin, nine companies announced layoffs that will affect nearly 890 workers in April. In the Milwaukee area, Sientra, Inc. in Franklin announced it was laying off 128 workers beginning June 18.

On April 19, Walmart announced it was closing its store on South 70th and West Main streets in Milwaukee's Wisconsin Fair Park neighborhood where 105 employees will be laid off.

Meanwhile, the state's unemployment rate held steady at 3% during March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Cathy Kozlowicz can be reached at 262-361-9132 or cathy.kozlowicz@jrn.com. Follow her on X at @kozlowicz_cathy.