Laid off from Mauser Packaging Solutions.

What Mauser Packaging Solutions layoffs have meant for employees

The most useful detail in Mauser's 2025 closings is when the money got settled. Little Village's strikers kept picketing after the company announced the closing, pressing it to reopen the plant and to agree to a contract or severance, South Side Weekly reported, and the terms came out of that fight. Seattle's closing went through the union too, with Local 117's Paul Dascher telling Packaging Dive that it negotiated the separation agreement. Each deal belonged to one local in one dispute, so neither tells you what another plant would get. If a local represents you at a Mauser plant, these two closings show terms being reached in bargaining.

Losing the plant didn't end the work in Chicago, by the union's account. Mauser said it would “leverage its operational footprint across other Midwest facilities,” and Packaging Dive counted three other production locations within two miles. Nicolas Coronado, Local 705's lawyer, told South Side Weekly that Mauser trucks kept leaving the Millard site and that a leased facility near Archer and Cicero took some of the work, with drums sent on to Ohio and Michigan. The settlement lets production workers reapply at other Mauser plants with no special preference, so going back to a nearby site means applying like anyone else, and they left without a new contract. It does say Local 705 would be recognized at any Chicago Mauser plant that may open to recondition drums, a term worth remembering if you were in that unit and see one open.

The 2024 aerosol letters show how a Mauser notice can be definite and unsettled in one breath. They told Ohio and Wisconsin that employees knew their separation dates and that the separation would be permanent, while holding out a possible sale, merger or other deal. Cincinnati's letter split its people into two dates, July 13 and August 30, each with fourteen days of leeway, and said they'd get compensation and benefits “for any period of time covered by federal or state WARN.” The U.S. aerosol business was less than 1.5% of net sales and operating at a loss, S&P's March 2025 tear sheet report said, a small line for the company and, at Sturtevant, every job at the site. Packaging Dive noted that Mauser stayed in aerosol cans in other markets and had just bought a Mexican maker, without tying that deal to the closings. If a letter worded this way covers your job, you can build a job search around its date and count any sale talk as a maybe.

BWAY's record shows a purchase working in both directions. The 2011 S-4 describes BWAY closing its own plants after buying Central Can and Ball Plastics, and consolidating that work mainly into what it had just acquired. At Hubbard, Ohio, it was the plant BWAY had just bought that it chose to close, Business Journal Daily reported. So a deal didn't tell workers which side of it they'd land on. All of that predates the 2018 combination, which makes it history and no forecast for a plant today.

Mauser's filings can carry other names. Illinois's December 2025 report lists the Chicago employer as Industrial Container Services, LLC, with Mauser as its trade name, and Maryland's WARN log shows ICS, LLC. for Baltimore, while older notices read BWAY, Plastican division of BWAY or Mauser Corp. If you're matching a letter to a filing, or naming a former employer on a benefits form, you can try each of those names on our WARN tracker.

A sourced history of Mauser Packaging Solutions layoffs

• September 2025, Chicago drum plant closing notice

  Subsidiary Industrial Container Services was “tentatively” closing the Millard plant in Little Village, where Teamsters had struck since June 9, a Mauser spokesperson told Packaging Dive, and a state notice listed 168 workers for November 21. Illinois's December report shows it revised to 143. The plant closed in November, and severance followed in January's settlement, South Side Weekly reported.

• July 2025, Seattle plant closing after April lockout

  Mauser reportedly locked out 20 employees in April during a contract dispute and closed the facility in July, Packaging Dive reported. Local 117's Paul Dascher said the union negotiated a separation agreement and used a Washington State Labor Council program to help members find jobs elsewhere.

• March 2025, Baltimore plant closure notice

  ICS, LLC, doing business as Mauser, listed 22 employees at 1440 Chesapeake Avenue in a notice dated March 14, which Maryland's 2025 WARN log records as a plant closure effective May 16.

• June 2024, Lawrenceville, New Jersey layoff notice

  A June notice to New Jersey put layoffs at the Lawrenceville site at 77 employees, effective September 6, Packaging Dive reported.

• May 2024, U.S. aerosol can exit announced

  The Ohio letter and Wisconsin letter said Mauser expected to end aerosol can operations at Cincinnati and Sturtevant on July 27 unless a sale or other deal emerged, affecting about 107 and all 42 employees. Affected workers were to receive severance or separation benefits plus outplacement services, Packaging Dive reported.

• May 2017, Hubbard, Ohio can plant closing announced

  BWAY, which bought the aerosol can plant from Ball in March, told workers it would close at year's end, idling about 60, a Steelworkers director told Business Journal Daily.

• 2010, Toccoa, Georgia closing after Ball Plastics purchase

  BWAY closed its Toccoa plant and consolidated the business mainly into the Newnan, Georgia, facility it had bought with Ball Plastics, its 2011 S-4 says. The closure affected about 85 employees, with about $0.5 million recorded for severance and benefits.

• 2010, Brampton and Kilbourn closings after Central Can purchase

  BWAY closed its Brampton, Ontario, and Kilbourn, Illinois, plants and consolidated that business mainly into Central Can's Chicago facility, its 2011 S-4 says. Brampton's closing affected about 60 employees.

• 2008, Franklin Park and Cleveland plant closings

  BWAY closed plants in Franklin Park, Illinois, and Cleveland, affecting about 85 and 95 employees, its 2011 S-4 says. Severance and benefits were recorded at about $0.6 million and $0.5 million, and Franklin Park added about $3.4 million in union pension withdrawal liabilities.

What to do if you're laid off from Mauser Packaging Solutions

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Mauser Packaging Solutions's biggest hubs: Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Wisconsin. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Mauser Packaging Solutions's hub states run: Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.