In compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), Energizer officially notified the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development of the upcoming closure of the Fennimore plant, via a letter sent my the human resources department of the plant.
Notification must be also given to comply with Wisconsin Business Closing and Mass Layoff Laws.
As of the date of letter, Oct. 2, there still remained 172 employees at the plant. The letter goes on to state that the first employee is excepted to be separated from employment on Dec. 1.
It had been previously stated by the company that layoffs would be beginning in January 2024.
Additional employee separations will continue until the plant ceases operations in September 2024, which coincides with previous closing date estimates.
News of the plant’s closing first started up when Teamsters Local Union No. 695 sent a letter to union members on Jan. 17, warning Energizer employees that the corporation was planning to close both of its Wisconsin operations, Fennimore and Portage.
Energizer Holdings was at first vague in it’s plans when asked for to comment, but in early March of this year, corporate postings when up in the break rooms of both the Fennimore and Portage plants, outlining upcoming “shutdown plans” for the plant.
The next week, the company released an official statement confirming what had been rumored for the last two months, stating, “Energizer Holdings recently met with representatives from Local 695 and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters regarding our intent to conduct a phased closing of our Portage and Fennimore facilities in Wisconsin.”
Since then, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) has been the most vocal state representative about the plants closures.
In August, Baldwin called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate and conduct a retrospective analysis of the 2018 Energizer-Spectrum Brands merger. “The merger has led to price hikes for consumers and threatened hundreds of jobs in Wisconsin. Since the merger, Energizer has dominated the battery market, raising prices and announcing their plans to close two plants in Fennimore and Portage, laying off hundreds of Wisconsin union workers,” Baldwin wrote to the FTC.
“Hundreds of Wisconsinites are now on the cusp of losing a good-paying, union job. Revisiting this merger, on behalf of these workers and the consumers who now face higher prices, is clearly in the public interest and squarely within the [Federal Trade] Commission’s authority to investigate mergers both before and after they are completed,” wrote Senator Baldwin. “I urge the Commission to swiftly undertake a thorough investigation into the 2018 merger, which unfortunately the Commission has not yet done.”
Last month, Senator Baldwin visited with Energizer Employees and members of the Teamsters Local 695 to hear about the impact of Energizer closing its Fennimore plant.
Notification must be also given to comply with Wisconsin Business Closing and Mass Layoff Laws.
As of the date of letter, Oct. 2, there still remained 172 employees at the plant. The letter goes on to state that the first employee is excepted to be separated from employment on Dec. 1.
It had been previously stated by the company that layoffs would be beginning in January 2024.
Additional employee separations will continue until the plant ceases operations in September 2024, which coincides with previous closing date estimates.
News of the plant’s closing first started up when Teamsters Local Union No. 695 sent a letter to union members on Jan. 17, warning Energizer employees that the corporation was planning to close both of its Wisconsin operations, Fennimore and Portage.
Energizer Holdings was at first vague in it’s plans when asked for to comment, but in early March of this year, corporate postings when up in the break rooms of both the Fennimore and Portage plants, outlining upcoming “shutdown plans” for the plant.
The next week, the company released an official statement confirming what had been rumored for the last two months, stating, “Energizer Holdings recently met with representatives from Local 695 and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters regarding our intent to conduct a phased closing of our Portage and Fennimore facilities in Wisconsin.”
Since then, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) has been the most vocal state representative about the plants closures.
In August, Baldwin called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate and conduct a retrospective analysis of the 2018 Energizer-Spectrum Brands merger. “The merger has led to price hikes for consumers and threatened hundreds of jobs in Wisconsin. Since the merger, Energizer has dominated the battery market, raising prices and announcing their plans to close two plants in Fennimore and Portage, laying off hundreds of Wisconsin union workers,” Baldwin wrote to the FTC.
“Hundreds of Wisconsinites are now on the cusp of losing a good-paying, union job. Revisiting this merger, on behalf of these workers and the consumers who now face higher prices, is clearly in the public interest and squarely within the [Federal Trade] Commission’s authority to investigate mergers both before and after they are completed,” wrote Senator Baldwin. “I urge the Commission to swiftly undertake a thorough investigation into the 2018 merger, which unfortunately the Commission has not yet done.”
Last month, Senator Baldwin visited with Energizer Employees and members of the Teamsters Local 695 to hear about the impact of Energizer closing its Fennimore plant.
The Senator gave a statement to the Fennimore Times on the meeting, again calling on the FTC in investigate the 2018 Energizer-Spectrum Brands merger, “Last month, I had the opportunity to visit with Energizer employees in Fennimore impacted by the plant closing. These Wisconsin workers, many of whom have devoted decades of their lives to the company, are what made Energizer successful and are being left high and dry. It’s wrong, and that’s why I’m calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the 2018 merger that led to Energizer dominating the battery market, jacking up costs for working families, and shipping off hundreds of Wisconsin good-paying union jobs.”
