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Maytag closes out an era

Mark Wickliff, 49, leaves the Maytag appliance factory in Newton, Iowa, on its last day of production. The plant is being closed by Whirlpool Corp., which bought Maytag last year. Wickliff says he's part of the crew that will work a few more weeks to shut down the plant. He'll then have to look for a job after 26 years of working for Maytag. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
Mark Wickliff, 49, leaves the Maytag appliance factory in Newton, Iowa, on its last day of production. The plant is being closed by Whirlpool Corp., which bought Maytag last year. Wickliff says he's part of the crew that will work a few more weeks to shut down the plant. He'll then have to look for a job after 26 years of working for Maytag. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

NEWTON, Iowa – The last washers and dryers rolled off Maytag assembly lines here Thursday and the 550 workers who built them left the 2 million-square-foot factory for the last time, ending a century of appliance manufacturing in Newton under the iconic brand name.

For many workers, it was a sad parting with a company that has provided for their families over generations. Worries had mounted since May 10, 2006, the day officials at Whirlpool Corp., which bought Maytag last year, unveiled plans to close the Maytag corporate headquarters and the local factory that made washers and dryers, leaving about 1,800 local workers to find other jobs.

“I’m numb, I’m scared. I’ll be all right, I think,” said an emotional Mike Jackson, 52, as he walked out of the factory for the last time after 18 years of work. “This is not just about us, it’s about our kids.”

He said there were hugs and kisses among the workers as they left.

“It was very emotional. It still is,” he said.

Mark Wickliff, 49, carried a sign that read “Maytag, the dependability people,” among other personal belongings. He said he’ll return for a few more weeks to help ship out some equipment and close the plant down.

His family includes four generations of Maytag workers. After 26 1/2 years, he falls short of the 30 needed to retire with full benefits.

“It’s just close enough to look for another job,” he said.

Tootie Samson, 47, of Baxter, has been preparing herself for the end. A Maytag worker for six years, she was laid off in 2003 when the company was struggling to compete and was cutting costs and jobs.

Last year she was called back again by Whirlpool to help keep production on track until the final shutdown this week. During the three-year layoff she earned a two-year degree in interior design and fashion. She, her husband, a truck driver for a construction company, and daughter learned to live leaner.

She’s glad to be working when the final shutdown occurs, she said.

“When somebody dies and you don’t see the body. How do you know they’re gone? Not being in there when they close the doors, you don’t have closure that you get this way,” she said.

Factory workers develop close friendships, and many co-workers become like family, she said.

“It’s definitely a death of sorts. A death to a lot of people’s lifestyle … How can the people that allowed this to happen live with themselves?” she said.

Many workers remaining have never worked anywhere else and a large number of them have just a high school education. Finding a job that pays $30,000 to $40,000 with good benefits will be tough.

Company officials said about 100 workers will stay in the factory for a little while longer to oversee the shutdown.

Work boots, cast aside by workers as they left the factory, were strewn on the sidewalk by the employee entrance and some were hung over a fence where flowers and a flag had been displayed as a makeshift memorial.

UAW Local 997 President Ted Johnson said eliminating the Newton factory is part of a “widespread epidemic” in the United States of corporations cutting union jobs for lower-paying jobs that threaten the middle-class way of life.

“It’s just wrong,” he said.

A block from the town square, the former Maytag headquarters has 55 people left out of the 900 that once ran the nation’s third largest appliance manufacturer. Those who remain are responsible for the closure, a job expected to end in December.

At its peak Maytag had 4,000 workers in Newton, a town of 16,000 people 30 miles east of Des Moines.

The closing is part of a larger plan to consolidate Maytag’s headquarters with Whirlpool’s in Benton Harbor, Mich., and shutter plants in Iowa, Illinois and Arkansas. It calls for cutting 4,500 jobs and chopping about $400 million in operating costs.

The machines once made by Maytag will be redesigned to fit on a Whirlpool chassis and built by workers in nonunion factories in Clyde and Marion, Ohio, where they earn significantly less than the union-represented workers in Newton.

Whirlpool spokesman Jeff Noel said Whirlpool had little choice but to take some major steps to fix the broken Maytag business. That meant eliminating higher-cost factories and jobs.