Labor & Employment Law

Breaking: Whirlpool Warns Workers to Skip Friday Rally

By James Parks

Thousands of people signed petitions calling on Whirlpool to keep jobs in America.

In an internal newsletter at Whirlpool Corp.’s Evansville, Ind., plant, Paul Coburn, vice president of Whirlpool’s Evansville Division, says the decision to close the plant and kill 1,100 jobs will not be reconsidered and warns workers about attending a Friday rally protesting the shutdown:

…these negative activities will only ham­per employees when they look for future jobs….We fear that potential employers will view the actions of a few and determine whether they would want to hire any of Evansville Division employees in the future.

You can read more about Coburn’s memo on The Huffington Post here. 

Show solidarity with the Whirlpool workers, 900 of whom are members of IUE-CWA Local 808, by signing an online petition urging Whirlpool to reverse its decision and Keep It Made in America: Save Our Jobs. Click here to add your name to nearly 40,000 who already have signed the petition.

Despite Coburn’s letter, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will join Whirlpool workers at the Evansville plant Feb. 26 to deliver the petitions. The workers then will march from the plant to the IUE-CWA Local 808 union hall for a rally, where Trumka, workers and union and community leaders will speak.

In his letter to workers, Coburn unabashedly delivers a backhanded compliment to the workers, saying: 

In the last six months we have delivered strong results in spite of having to see a good deal of our equipment taken out of the building and moved to its new location. I believe that it is a testament to your character that you have continued to work hard to preserve the positive reputation of the Evansville workforce during this period.

 Says IUE-CWA President Jim Clark:

Whirlpool is a bad corporate citizen who is twisting this country’s desire to reduce energy usage and using it to export jobs. We are pushing hard to ensure that good intentions on going green don’t help fund loss of good manufacturing jobs.

Local 808 President Darrell Collins says:

Americans are sick of companies turning a blind eye to what is happening out there. They need to tell Whirlpool to act responsibly.

Whirlpool had revenues of more than $4.8 billion in the past quarter alone. The company also recently received $19 million as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Yet, the company is spending $110 million to build a new plant in Mexico.

The local received no advance notice of the closing announcement and had no opportunity to try to save the plant, Collins says. In the past, workers have accepted reduced wages and embraced cost-saving lean manufacturing techniques to save jobs.

Whirlpool sells the refrigerators, which have freezers on the top, under the Amana, Roper, Maytag, KitchenAid and Kenmore brand names.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).