CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG/Gray News) – A Whirlpool plant in a small Iowa town has announced job cuts.
The Amana Whirlpool plant announced this week it will cut 650 workers from its facility in Middle Amana.
To put it into perspective, the 650 workers that will lose their jobs on June 1 are 100 people more than the total population of Middle Amana reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Hawkeye Area Labor Council says its members are angry, frustrated and feeling disrespected.
Union leaders said Whirpool’s layoffs will take place over the next two months and include about a third of the current workforce at the plant.
They said the layoffs will have devastating effects on the community and many are also frustrated with lawmakers.
Rick Moyle, with the Hawkeye Area Labor Council, said most of the people he spoke to are angry about House File 2355, which Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law in 2022.
It cut the number of weeks Iowa residents can get unemployment benefits from 26 to 16. It also requires workers to accept a job that pays less much sooner than previous requirements.
“They’ve never had to be laid off. They depend on that money to support their family,” Moyle said.
Todd Waddell, once a union leader for Whirlpool employees, said this will hit them hard.
“The concerns are ‘Where do I go from here?‘. ‘Where do I find a job?‘” he said. “You know, this is not just 650 members. This is also their families. This is a big impact … because these are people from all over this area that work down here.”
But Governor Reynolds’ office said the unemployment changes have actually sped up the process for Iowans getting back to work.
A spokesperson for Reynolds’ office shared that the state has seen the average time an Iowan uses benefits has decreased from 13 weeks to 9 weeks – the third lowest in the nation.
As for the Whirlpool workers, Iowa Workforce Development said they’ll be sharing resources and having meetings with them in the coming weeks to help get employees get back to work as soon as possible.
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