For the second year in a row, Wisconsin Plastics Inc. has been honored for its work in employee relations.
The Green Bay custom injection molder received a special award Feb. 27 for ``employment leadership'' from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce at the Manufacturer of the Year awards in Milwaukee.
Judges cited the effort company officials have made to learn Hmong, a Southeast Asian language, to ease communications between English and Hmong-speaking workers. Also, the award highlighted the firm's work employing 25-30 inmates from the Sanger Powers Correctional Center and encouraging education.
During last year's awards, Wisconsin Plastics took home an Exemplary Employer award.
Chief Operating Officer Dan Kuiper said Wisconsin Plastics was selected from about 48 nominees. He answered ``yes and no'' when asked if he was surprised about Wisconsin Plastics' second consecutive worker-based award.
``We were hoping to win one of the awards,'' he said. ``We were surprised to have it be in our employee work, but an award is an award.''
Wisconsin Plastics has molding sales of $30 million in consumer products. Its plastics operations employ 185 of its 240 workers.
