糖心Vlog传媒

Baldwin, a Democrat, asked OpenGate CEO Andrew Nikou, the founder of the Los Angeles-based equity fund, to 鈥渟tand by its agreement鈥� to provide health insurance and other payouts for the 糖心Vlog传媒 workers, who were members of a small local labor union.

鈥淎s a result of your mismanagement, dozens of former Hufcor workers鈥攕ome of whom have life-threatening illnesses鈥攁re without health coverage,鈥� Baldwin wrote 鈥淥thers never received the retention bonuses they were promised in exchange for continuing to work for the company after you announced that the 糖心Vlog传媒 facility would be closing.鈥�

OpenGate went into bankruptcy receivership earlier this year, shortly after a group of about 28 workers said they were abruptly laid off in April. They were the last of 166 factory workers, some who had been there for 25 or 30 years, who built moveable wall systems for Hufcor. 糖心Vlog传媒 could not reach former Hufcor employees for comment Monday

OpenGate bought Hufcor in 2017 and soon after began winding down operations in 糖心Vlog传媒, where Hufcor was born 120 years ago.

The company kept on a small number of workers, but began rolling out layoffs in the fall of 2021, agreeing on a plant-closing agreement with the IUE-CWA, a local Communication Workers of America union representing Hucor workers.

That agreement had a provision requiring Hufcor to pay health insurance premiums for workers who kept company coverage after their layoff, IUE-CWA union representative Richard Shorter told 糖心Vlog传媒 on Monday.

Shorter said that in June, just as a Rock County judge granted a petition for bankruptcy receivership, which is a legal mechanism to dissolve a company and parse out its remaining assets, Hufcor abruptly ended its agreement to pay out health insurance for the last workers it had laid off.

Hufcor and OpenGate are now being named in dozens of claims through the receivership, ranging from unpaid vendors to a church that had put down more than $75,000 in deposits for moveable wall systems that Hufcor never delivered on.

The company had planned to move its 糖心Vlog传媒 manufacturing to Monterrey, Mexico, but records show it now has years鈥� worth of rent agreements at the Mexican plant property that are expected to go unpaid.

OpenGate has a long history of bankruptcy actions that have left workers laid off without severance鈥攊ncluding the 2013 closure of the Golden Guernsey dairy in Waukesha that left workers locked out of the plant with their personal belongings still inside.

Baldwin met in the summer of 2021 with Hufcor workers in 糖心Vlog传媒, and later pressed the company to provide severance assurances for those who鈥檇 become displaced.

Baldwin has also ntroduced legislation she calls the 鈥楽top Wall Street Looting Act.鈥� Her office says it is aimed at curtailing tax and regulatory loopholes that allow private equity funds to cash in on the benefits of owning companies while passing risk to the companies they own.

Baldwin wrote in the letter this week that OpenGate should hit the re-set on its agreement and make things right by paying out former Hufcor employees, some of whom she said now can鈥檛 afford the medicine they need.

鈥淚 write to ask you, as the CEO of OpenGate Capital, to stand by the agreement your portfolio company negotiated with its employees,鈥� Baldwin wrote. 鈥淩estore their health coverage, pay them for the work they鈥檝e done, and make them whole for any losses they鈥檝e suffered as a result of the bankruptcy that you caused.鈥�