‘It’s gonna hurt severely’
NEWTON, Iowa — The wait ended Wednesday for thousands of workers of the former Maytag Corp., who learned they would lose their jobs and the only lives many have known for decades.
About 2,000 workers in Iowa have endured months of anxiety and many anticipated the worst, but hoped some jobs might be spared.
Whirlpool announced Wednesday that it plans to close three Maytag plants that make washers and dryers — one in Newton and the other two in Illinois and Arkansas — as part of a consolidation effort. The work is being consolidated at Whirlpool factories Clyde, Ohio, and Marion, Ohio, company spokesman Dan Verakis said.
The Newton manufacturing site employs nearly 1,000 workers. Whirlpool is also closing the Maytag corporate headquarters in Newton with about 900 employees late next year.
The announcement came less than six weeks after Whirlpool acquired rival appliance maker Maytag.
Dave Russell, 45, who has worked at the Newton laundry factory for 22 years, worried about how his family, including his wife and three children would go on.
“It’s gonna hurt severely,” he said. “It’s not only devastating, but I’m sure it will, basically, turn into a very spiteful kind of feeling.”
Former Maytag workers have counted on the iconic company, founded in this central Iowa town 30 miles east of Des Moines in 1893, for their livelihoods.
Russell said for many of his co-workers Maytag was the biggest part of their lives.
“Some people don’t have any other type of life,” he said. “Their friends are right there, they spend more time at the plant than they do at home.”
Gov. Tom Vilsack said that offering more than $100 million and a new modern factory was not enough to persuade Whirlpool to keep jobs in central Iowa.
The state had offered to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant for Whirlpool, but Vilsack said the company declined, saying it already had such a plant in Ohio.
He said the state of Iowa is prepared to put $10 million forward for Newton and Jasper County “to enable them to aggressively work to create opportunities to either fill the existing facility, to build new facilities to bring economic development, to maintain economic activity in this community.”
Newton Mayor Chaz Allen said the community would begin working immediately with displaced workers.
“Today is a disappointment,” he said. “A lot of people put a lot of time into the retention of jobs.”
The Amana refrigerator and microwave factory in eastern Iowa and a warehouse in North Liberty will remain in operation, Whirlpool officials said.