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Thomas Products Leaving Sheboygan

By George Mallet

SHEBOYGAN - Angelica Guerrero is seated at her kitchen table surrounded by her three, beautiful dark-eyed daughters. They vie for her attention as she talks to a visiting reporter. “There is no plan right now,” she says in a somber tone. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Only a few hours have passed since Angelica got word that her employer, Thomas Products, is closing up shop and leaving Sheboygan. Some 366 jobs are leaving a local economy that is already devastated by closures and layoffs. “Where do you find a job now,” Angelica asks rhetorically. “There’s really nothing out there.” She knows. It was only three months ago that her husband was laid off. He has been looking. The loss of Thomas Products was fought hard by local leaders. The state and region offered the company an incentive-rich deal to stay put. Now that the company is leaving for Louisiana, local leaders aren’t mincing words about the impact. Dee Olsen heads the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. “I’d say it’s devastating for Sheboygan County,” she says. “Because it’s on top of a number of other announcements that we’ve had.”