Whirlpool Layoffs Rock Rural Iowa

The union called the move “outrageous.”

Transcript

Appliance manufacturer Whirlpool has announced that it will lay off 651 workers from its plant in Amana, Iowa.

The company said that the layoffs, effective June 1, are “necessary adjustments to production” in response to consumer demand for the specific products being manufactured in Amana. These include French door and column refrigerators.

While the company has said that tariffs are not a factor in this move, the decision nonetheless triggered a political backlash of a different kind.

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Reports have noted that the job loss announcement came after Iowa state legislators voted in 2022 to reduce the duration of unemployment benefits that are available to workers affected by layoffs and closings.

Once 26 weeks, unemployment claims now max out at 16 weeks, and recent efforts to restore the former duration have fizzled.

The manufacturing sector in Iowa was the industry that saw the most layoffs in the past year – with 7,600 job reductions. A Newsweek report cited worries over the “dangerous gap in the state's economic safety net.”

Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO President Charlie Wishman called Whirlpool’s cuts “outrageous for a company that made $17 billion last year” and he didn’t hesitate to implicate the Iowa governor and state legislature, saying the group “continue[s] to let rural Iowa die.”

Amana, Iowa has a population of just 400 people. The layoffs are said to be the biggest announced in Iowa so far this year.

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