On a Monday morning in late March, David Olsen arrived at work without realizing it would be his last. A meeting was called by Northern Metal Fab, Inc.’s ownership. Employees were instructed to pack their belongings. A career, sometimes spanning decades, ended abruptly.
“There absolutely was no warning that the company was potentially going belly up,” Olsen stated. “That was a shock to everyone.”
Since 1987, Northern Metal Fab, Inc. has been based in Baldwin, Wisconsin. Large-scale metal welding and fabrication projects were handled by it; few shops in the area could handle this type of industrial work. It was, by most accounts, a stable place to establish a career. Yes, there were slow years. However, the plant continued to operate and people continued to arrive.
But what happened after the announcement of the closure on March 30 is what made a difficult layoff much worse. Olsen and his former coworkers found out within days that they had not been paid for the last two weeks. Additionally, they were informed that any unused vacation time would not be reimbursed. The most devastating revelation was that, although employees continued to pay their premiums through March without realizing it, their health insurance had been covertly cancelled back in late February.
That month, the wife of one employee gave birth. “Fifteen, 20, 25 years people have been here and they’ve got nothing to show for it,” Olsen remarked, adding that the family now has to deal with a hospital bill that they had every reason to think would be covered. The weight of that statement is difficult to ignore. These weren’t temporary workers. These individuals centered their lives around this location.
Since then, Northern Metal Fab, Inc. has been the target of a class action lawsuit alleging that the company’s owners violated both state and federal laws, including failing to pay unpaid wages and failing to provide any prior notice before the plant closure. According to Wisconsin law, businesses with more than 50 workers must typically give 60 days’ notice before closing. An investigator is currently investigating whether that obligation was disregarded, according to the state.
Speaking on behalf of co-owner John Felix, attorney Joseph Skokan released a statement stating that the business was “no longer financially viable” following a review of operations and the state of the economy. Soon, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing was anticipated. The statement expressed optimism that “a quick and meaningful distribution” to creditors and employees would come from the liquidation of assets. It remains to be seen if that optimism is justified.
Reading between the lines gives the impression that the closure may have been inevitable and that staff members were just not informed. On the Sunday following the shutdown, there was still no indication on the company’s website that it had closed. There were still several open job postings with application links.
David’s wife, Jody Olsen, used to work at Northern Metal Fab in human resources. In 2025, she departed on her own terms. She is now concentrating on finding new employment for her husband and his former coworkers. There is a certain clarity to her viewpoint. “A failure is one thing,” she remarked. “To then take advantage of employees is another.”
It’s important to remember that Northern Metal Fab has previously been under investigation. OSHA has performed several inspections at the Baldwin facility over the years, citing problems ranging from confined space hazards to crane maintenance failures, according to federal workplace safety records. After inspections revealed deliberate and serious violations, such as operating a 20-ton crane with a broken component, regulators once suggested fines of almost $180,000.
All of that doesn’t tell you what kind of business this was in the end. It does, however, paint a picture that employees like David Olsen appear to be all too familiar with when combined with the sudden closure, the withheld wages, and the covertly cancelled insurance. They spent years there. In the end, all they received was a meeting on Monday morning and a farewell in the parking lot.
