It wasn’t too long ago that workers at the Whirlpool plant in Amana were working extended shifts in order to meet an increased demand, but today employees learned that 440 workers would soon face layoffs.
Jill Saletta, director of external communications for Whirlpool, said the voluntary and involuntary job cuts will take place over the next 10 days and can be traced back to current economic instability.
“Our employees at the plant were notified today about layoffs that are coming,” Saletta siad in a phone interview this afternoon. “There are 440 individuals affected. One hundred and ten are voluntary. The balance, or 330, are involuntary.”
Whirlpool purchased Maytag for $1.7 billion in 2005 and subsequently shut down the company’s headquarters in Newton in 2006, costing the community roughly 1,800 jobs. When the decision was made to close the Newton facilities, Whirlpool management said operations would be expanded in Amana to provide up to 400 jobs over a two-year period.
Whirlpool received $5 million in state incentives to expand the Amana facility in exchange for its promise to keep and create jobs in Iowa.
http://iowaindependent.com/6812/whirlpool-cuts-440-jobs-in-amana
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