UPDATED: Walker Touts Brookfield Plant Job Growth, Calls for Training

(Updated 1:35 p.m.) Gov. Scott Walker touted a Brookfield plant’s job growth Thursday as more evidence the state’s manufacturing sector was improving, but said training and matching highly skilled machinists remains an obstacle for many businesses.

Walker said "everywhere I go" around the state, plant operators emphasize they can't find qualified, trained workers, despite unemployment of around seven percent.

He encouraged the crowd of employees at Trace-A-Matic Corp. to help by encouraging others to enter manufacturing training programs at technical colleges and other venues.

"Talk about the good careers and the good opportunities in manufacturing in this state," he said, adding that one of his sons, a high school junior, wants to pursue engineering.

Trace-A-Matic's purchase this year of its fifth facility in a western Brookfield industrial park and its plans to hire 35 more workers by year-end "sends a message to other employers, that you know what, things are getting better, things are heading in the right direction," Walker said. "Now is the time to take that risk.... to make that investment."

Trace-A-Matic Corp. has hired 21 employees since December and another eight are enrolled in a training program and will become full-time employees once the "boot camp" ends in July, said Thorsten Wienss, company president.

Founded in 1968 in Milwaukee and relocated to Brookfield in the mid-1970s, Trace-A-Matic Corp. produces highly engineered machined parts and assemblies for other manufacturing companies in industries such as mining, hydraulics, military, aerospace, medical and construction.

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The company has about 160 employees, according to the city's latest Economic Development e-newsletter. Earlier this year it purchased the 116,000-square-foot former distribution building at 21125 Enterprise Ave. and is adding power for expanded operations, Wienss said.

The company has retained a recruiter to help hire experienced machine operators, encouraging interested applicants to contact recruiter Bryan Obst at 262-641-6703.

Hiring comes amid March jobs loss

Walker's appearance in Brookfield came shortly before the state released new figures Thursday showing Wisconsin lost 4,300 private sector jobs in March, as reported by the BizTimes.com.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dipped slightly to 6.8 percent from 6.9 percent in February, according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released today by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), the BizTimes reported.

In Brookfield, Walker said the state's unemployment rate continues to be about two points lower than it was when he took office, in contrast to the rate in neighboring Illinois where he said unemployment has not substantially improved and remains about nine percent.

"These are challenging times," he said. "We’re on a steady path. We're going to have ups and and we’re going to have downs along the way. But as long as we’re headed in the right direction, we’re turning things around, we're going to get this state working again."

Manufacturing sales on rise

Wienss told Patch Trace-A-Matic's sales are on pace to exceed last year's $28 million and reach as high as $45 million, based on orders coming in for the first six months.

"Oil and gas is going well, mining is doing well," he said. "Medical is picking up. Customers are not as afraid to spend money."

He remains cautiously optimistic about the future and the company's plant and labor expansion.

"Is the economy going to continue?" he asked. "You do whatever you can to mitigate the risks."

To help incent Trace-A-Matic's hiring, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation will give the company annual tax credits in direct relation to the number of jobs retained and new, full-time positions created and filled over a three-year period.

Machine operator Jim Pontzloff, who joined Trace-A-Matic a year ago, told Patch he supports Walker and his job policies. He added that U.S. companies like Trace-A-Matic that produce the largest machine components have been able to weather the recession because the parts are too expensive to ship to the United States from overseas.

"A lot of machining, period, is coming back" as labor costs rise in China, said Pontzloff, 47, of Waukesha, who has worked in manufacturing for 28 years after getting a degree from Milwaukee Area Technical College.

Among those observing Thursday's announcement with Walker was Wienss' father, Dietrich Wienss, who founded the company with the late Heinz Proell and John Fischer.

Company founder urges more training

A German native, Dietrich Wienss said the family company now is run by sons of the founders and has always been "very conservative" with its investments. The company has spun off many subsidiaries but he said Trace-A-Matic "was the goose that laid the golden egg," he told Patch.

The company started at 38th and Burnham Street in Milwaukee and moved to Brookfield in the mid-'70s, choosing to stay and keep expanding in Brookfield "because we liked it here," Dietrich Wienss said.

The company now owns five buildings along Commerce Avenue and Enterprise Drive off Barker Road in Brookfield, or all but one facility on the south side of Commerce.

Dietrich Wienss said he was buoyed by the company's continued success but urged local and state educators to beef up training for manufacturing, saying there was "not enough" being offered at local technical colleges and high schools.

Blue-collar jobs often pay more than white-collar ones, but school districts and universities continue to promote non-manufacturing careers, he said.

"We have very high education in Wisconsin and that's good, but we have no support in our area," Dietrich Wienss said. "That's what we need in our neighborhoods."