GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Governor Scott Walker says the Kraft Heinz corporate decision to close the Madison Oscar Mayer plant caught the state off guard…but he’s not through yet.
Governor Walker, stopping at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay to address a group of small business leaders, says he’s looking to leap-frog the Oscar Mayer people….and go right to the leadership of Kraft Heinz.
He wants to schedule a meeting with the corporate office, hoping to put the brakes on a big economic hit.
Over a thousand workers will get pink slips over the time it takes to shut the plant down.
Walker wants to at least salvage some of those jobs…..and help those holding the ones he can’t.
The Governor says he will make sure the state Department of Workforce Development does all it can to help those who lose their jobs
Walker says the state had no advance notice about the closure.
He says if there’s a silver lining it’s that Dane County has the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.7 percent and can absorb the loss of jobs a little better than other parts of Wisconsin..