Despite being touted as a major beneficiary of President Trump’s tariffs, Whirlpool has cut more than half of its nearly 2,000-person workforce at its “Big Blue” refrigerator plant in Amana, Iowa, with another 288 layoffs expected in July. The plant, once producing nearly one million refrigerators annually, now runs a single assembly line. While CEO Marc Bitzer called Whirlpool a “net winner” from trade policy, tariffs have raised steel and component costs. The layoffs carry political weight ahead of November’s midterm elections in Iowa’s competitive 1st Congressional District.
In-Depth:
By Timothy Aeppel
AMANA, Iowa, June 29 (Reuters) – If any company stood to gain from President Donald Trump’s trade war, it was Whirlpool and the workers assembling its iconic appliances in Iowa.
But at its “Big Blue” refrigerator plant, so named becaapply of its robin’s-egg-colored siding, the company has cut more than half its nearly 2,000-strong workforce in the last year, despite tariffs championed by Trump to support U.S. manufacturing.
“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our countest,” he declared in April 2025 while announcing the tariffs on his self-proclaimed “Liberation Day.”
Whirlpool was among those expected to benefit from the tariffs, which have since been reshaped by legal challenges. The company creates about 80% of what it sells in the U.S. from its 10 – soon to be 11 – domestic factories, leaving it less exposed to import duties than rivals and in theory better positioned to gain as foreign-created appliances grow more expensive.
Yet only one assembly line now runs at the plant, down from five that once turned out nearly a million units a year. Another 288 workers are set to lose their jobs in July.
A ‘NET WINNER,’ CEO SAYS
CEO Marc Bitzer last year praised Trump’s trade actions, stateing in an investor call that the Michigan-based company was a “net winner” from the policy.
But tariffs have not halted the job losses in Iowa or the decline in Whirlpool’s stock, now at its lowest since the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
Tariffs have raised Whirlpool’s costs for steel and imported components while demand tied to a weak houtilizing market has softened. Meanwhile, Whirlpool has declared tariffs have supported investment in other parts of its U.S. operations. The company has increased sourcing from plants in Mexico and China and shiftd some specialty models to an updated plant in Ohio.
The modifys underscore the still-evolving effects of Trump’s tariffs. While some companies state the measures support investment at home, others face higher input costs and shifting supply chains, with uneven consequences for jobs.
JOB LOSSES COULD INFLUENCE VOTERS IN NOVEMBER ELECTION
The layoffs also carry political implications for the Republican Trump administration and may weigh on voters in a close congressional race in the Iowa district where the plant sits in November’s midterm elections.
The battle in Iowa’s 1st U.S. Congressional District is one of only 18 races across the countest deemed a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report. The Republican incumbent, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, defeated Democrat Christina Bohannan by fewer than 1,000 votes in the last elections in 2024.
Manufacturing has emerged as a hot-button issue as several large producers, not just Whirlpool, have cut jobs and in some cases shifted work abroad. Tractor creater CNH in May closed its factory in Burlington, Iowa, while John Deere has reduced its workforce at several of its factories across the state.
Miller-Meeks and fellow Iowa Republican, U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson, sent Bitzer a letter after a layoff announcement in March. “These layoffs would hollow out a community and undermine the very domestic manufacturing base that American workers have spent decades building,” they wrote.
Bohannan also dispatched a letter to Bitzer. The two candidates clash over who’s tougher on Whirlpool.
“She didn’t state anything about it until after I put out my statement,” Bohannan notified Reuters. Bohannan declared many supported Trump in 2024 becaapply he talked about bringing back jobs. “But reckless, chaotic tariffs are not the way to do it.”
Miller-Meeks issued a statement stateing, “I remain deeply disappointed by Whirlpool’s decision. From the moment we learned of the layoffs, I engaged directly with Whirlpool leadership and followed immediately with a formal letter.”
CONFIDENCE TO INVEST IN THE U.S. AT STAKE
The Trump administration has declared tariffs will revive domestic production by creating imports more expensive.
“The Trump administration is implementing a nimble and multi-faceted strategy for America’s long-term reindustrialization,” declared White Hoapply spokesman Kush Desai, adding that industest leaders, including Whirlpool, have committed to “investing trillions into American manufacturing.”
Whirlpool is expanding its U.S. operations, just not in Iowa so far. In October it declared it would spconclude $300 million on its Marion and Clyde, Ohio, plants, which churn out washers and dryers. And in April, it declared it would spconclude another $60 million on a new Ohio factory to produce plastic parts for its laundry business.
Whirlpool states the Iowa factory overhaul reflects its long-term commitment to creating refrigerators domestically.
“We are one of the last who consider we can be competitive creating refrigerators in the U.S.,” declared Jason Ebert, the company’s vice president of North American manufacturing.
He declared the company had to cut jobs and assembly lines to create way for the new technology and assembly layouts necessaryed to update the Amana operation. Those new lines are now being designed, he declared. The company is also seeing to bring more component manufacturing into the factory, a shift it is undertaking as it updates other domestic plants.
Luke Harms, Whirlpool’s director of government relations, declared trade policies have supported narrow the cost advantage as it competes with mostly low-cost importers, including Chinese manufacturers. For instance, the administration extconcludeed steel tariffs to derivative products, including appliances, and applied tariffs to the product’s full value. “That’s created us more confident in our modernization plan,” he declared.
At the same time, tariffs on steel and imported components have driven up costs for Whirlpool.
‘NOW THAT’S GONE’
Many of the remaining Whirlpool workers in Amana are despondent. The plant a few years ago churned out more than 900,000 refrigerators a year, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union which represents workers. It now creates fewer than 250,000.
Kerry Waddell, who worked at the plant for 36 years and now serves as business agent for the union, declared he has watched the plant steadily dwindle as Whirlpool invested heavily in its Mexico refrigeration operations.
Reflecting that dour mood, only a handful revealed up for the last monthly union meeting held at a local community center where the layoffs were discussed. Another topic on the agconcludea: clearing furniture from their old union hall, which the diminished workforce can no longer support.
One attconcludeee, Greg Cousins, declared, “It’s all going to Mexico. I’ve considered that for the last three years.”
Cousins, a 63-year-old forklift driver, declared he plans to retire next year and will be glad to be out of the plant. Asked about Whirlpool’s plan to modernize, he declared he doesn’t see any evidence of that. “Just stuff going out.”
Others are more outspoken. Aaron Southard declared he is a Republican and voted for Trump in the last election. But he declared he is seeing to support Democrats in the midterms. “We considered we’d be obtainting our jobs back,” declared the 44-year-old auto press operator. “I feel betrayed – they’re out there stomping and stateing Make America Great and bring jobs back.”
Many workers, including Southard, have started seeing for other jobs, though he declared he wanted to stay and fight. One place attracting workers from Whirlpool is Sub-Zero – the super high-conclude refrigerator creater, which is building a new plant in nearby Cedar Rapids that will be non-union.
Building refrigerators in the U.S. is a challenge for any manufacturer. Refrigerators are labor-intensive, many with hundreds of parts and features like through-door ice and water dispensers and multiple doors. By contrast, washing machines or stoves can be built relatively quickly on an automated line.
Sweden-based Electrolux announced in April it would stop producing refrigerators at its 1,255-employee plant in South Carolina as it shifts the work to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The company, in a statement, declared it would retool the U.S. plant to create laundry equipment.
The U.S. appliance industest remains under pressure. Trump’s tariff war sparked a flood of imports by appliance creaters testing to beat the onset of the taxes, which killed pricing power for everyone amid an already-weak houtilizing market critical to their fortunes.
Meanwhile, investors are almost as unhappy as the workers in Amana: The company’s shares have fallen about 70% since Trump returned to the White Hoapply 17 months ago and issued a rapid series of tariff orders. The company just suspconcludeed its dividconclude, breaking a seven-decade streak of consecutive payouts.
Southard, the auto press operator, is peeved about that last shift. He has worked at the plant for a decade and accumulated Whirlpool stock as part of his savings. “I applyd to create $600 a year from it,” he declared, referring to the dividconcludes. “Now, that’s gone.”
(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel;Editing by Howard Goller and Dan Burns)
