Whirlpool’s latest job cuts in Amana, Iowa, are being described by union leaders and longtime workers as more than the usual round of layoffs.
On today’s episode of the America’s Work Force Union Podcast, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM Union) representatives, Sam Cicinelli, Kerry Waddell and Sandy Freytag, explain why they believe the cuts may create larger problems, including shrinking domestic production, the weakening of one of Iowa’s key manufacturing sites and destabilizing a community built around union work.
The latest layoffs at Whirlpool’s Amana operation are being felt as both an immediate economic blow and a warning about the future of union manufacturing in the Midwest.
On America’s Work Force Union Podcast, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM Union) Sam Cicinelli, IAM Union Midwest Territory General Vice President, and Todd “Kerry” Waddell, IAM Union District 6 Assisting Business Representative, joined longtime Whirlpool worker and IAM Union member Sandy Freytag to discuss what they described as the steady dismantling of one of Iowa’s most important manufacturing employers. Their account highlighted how the latest cuts are part of a yearslong contraction that has steadily reduced jobs, production lines and confidence in the plant’s future.
According to the union, Whirlpool recently moved ahead with another round of cuts affecting roughly 350 workers, following an earlier layoff of about 250 within the last year. Union representatives said additional reductions are expected by the end of the second quarter, adding to fears that the facility is being scaled down toward a warehouse-style operation rather than a major production facility.
For a plant that once employed more than 3,000 union members, that shift carries consequences far beyond the factory floor.
Cicinelli said the union views the layoffs as part of a deliberate pattern rather than a one-time decision. The company has steadily reduced the workforce while expanding production elsewhere, including in Mexico and nonunion facilities in the United States, he said.
That broader trend matters because the headline layoff numbers tell only part of the story. Freytag, a first-shift plant chair and nearly 32-year Whirlpool employee, said the company has also been shrinking the workforce through attrition.
In June 2025, she said, the plant still had about 1,900 workers. Since then, layoffs and the failure to replace departing employees have sharply reduced the total. Workers have also watched assembly lines disappear, a sure sign the issue is not temporary.
Waddell, who worked at the plant for 36 years, said the factory had five major assembly lines running multiple shifts just a few years ago. Now, there is one line operating on two shifts, with another shift reduction expected by midyear, he said.
Union leaders said they have heard talk of future refurbishment or new products, but workers on the ground say they are not seeing evidence to justify confidence in a manufacturing rebound.
The Amana facility is not just another employer in eastern Iowa. It is one of the largest manufacturing anchors in the county, with economic reach beyond Amana into surrounding communities, including Marengo and Williamsburg.
Freytag said the damage is already visible in households that depended on Whirlpool wages. She described nearby families in which multiple workers lost their jobs, leaving them to figure out how to keep their homes and cover basic costs in a region that lacks the capacity to absorb a sudden wave of displaced workers.
That strain extends to local businesses and suppliers. A convenience store, a restaurant or a service provider may not appear in a layoff notice, but each depends in part on workers driving to and from shifts, buying groceries, fueling vehicles and spending paychecks locally. Freytag also noted that a plastics supplier in Kelowna is shutting down, with Whirlpool’s reduced demand contributing to the impact.
For labor advocates, this is the central issue. Manufacturing layoffs do not stop at the plant gate. They move through the local economy, weakening small towns, shrinking tax bases and reducing the stability that union jobs once provided.
The union representatives also raised concerns about public incentives and private investment choices. Waddell said the Amana operation has benefited from substantial tax incentives intended to support local jobs and domestic manufacturing. He estimated that the plant received about $21 million in local tax incentives, while Whirlpool as a whole received roughly $70 million tied to keeping jobs and production in the United States.
At the same time, union leaders said the company has invested heavily in Mexico over the last two decades. Waddell said consumers can now see the result on retail floors, where refrigerators once produced in Amana are increasingly being replaced by foreign-made units.
That contrast is fueling anger among workers who believe public support was meant to sustain U.S. manufacturing, not ease the path toward offshoring. The union’s position is that workers and communities helped build Whirlpool’s success and should not be left carrying the cost of a long-term production shift.
In response, IAM Union leaders have tried to raise the profile of the issue with elected officials, the media and Whirlpool leadership. A recent rally in Iowa brought together workers, community members and public officials to spotlight what is happening at the plant and raise broader awareness, Waddell said.
Cicinelli said the union’s international president has also sent letters seeking accountability from Whirlpool leadership and from public officials. But that support has been uneven, he said, with only limited response from parts of Iowa’s congressional delegation and few signs that could change the company’s course.
That leaves workers in a painful position. Some, like Freytag, are trying to hold on as long as possible. Others with decades of experience in the plant are choosing to retire because the uncertainty has become too great. For mid-career and late-career workers alike, the prospect of starting over in a weakened job market adds another layer of hardship.
The Whirlpool story reflects a larger truth about industrial decline in the United States. Plants rarely disappear all at once. More often, they shrink quietly through line reductions, attrition, supplier losses and repeated layoffs that gradually drain the life out of a workplace.
That is the pattern IAM Union leaders and workers say they are watching in Amana. It is the latest example of what happens when a union manufacturing base is reduced piece by piece until a production center becomes little more than storage space.
The fight now is over accountability, visibility and whether one of Iowa’s defining union workplaces will remain a place where products are made or will it become another symbol of jobs that slipped away.
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