Union accuses Whirlpool of ‘corporate abandonment’

AMANA — The union representing workers at Whirlpool Corp.’s plant in Amana is condemning the company’s plans to lay off 341 workers.

“This is not an isolated incident,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in a statement Wednesday, pointing to the Michigan-based company’s investments in plants in Mexico. “It is a pattern of corporate abandonment.”

The statement said Whirlpool had laid off 250 workers at the Amana plant less than a year ago.

Whirlpool on Tuesday posted a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice with Iowa Workforce Development, as required by law.

According to the state’s WARN website, Whirlpool is eliminating 341 jobs effective March 9.

The union cited the company’s recent investments in Mexico as evidence that the company is sending American jobs — like the ones in Amana — to other countries.

“Whirlpool has been aggressively expanding its manufacturing footprint in Mexico, recently completing a major refrigerator plant expansion in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, in 2024, investing $65 million into its Celaya, Guanajuato facility, and designating Mexico as the sole producer of its French Door refrigerator line, a product exported almost entirely back to American and Canadian consumers,” it said.

“Iowa County’s largest employer is destroying the very community it claims to support while continuing to build up its operations south of the border,” the union stated.

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Whirlpool on Wednesday reiterated its statement Tuesday as it announced the layoffs ― with possibly more to come ― that it intends to modernize the Amana plant.

"Our Amana operations will continue to produce two-door bottom-mount and French door refrigerators," it said in a statement as reported by the Des Moines Register. "Over the next few years Whirlpool Corporation will invest in the Amana facility to expand operations and upgrade the types of products produced in the facility. "

Whirlpool's Tuesday statement to the Register said it is “the only U.S.-based manufacturer of major kitchen and laundry appliances" and that the Iowa plant "is a vital part of the company’s U.S. manufacturing footprint.”

The union urged Iowa’s congressional delegation to take action.

“Our members sent their representatives to fight for them, and this is that moment,” the union said. “Silence in the face of this corporate betrayal is not an option.”

The affected workers are members of IAM Local 1526 and produce refrigerators under the Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag and Amana brands.