Whirlpool Corp. has pushed the pause button on the layoffs of hundreds of workers at its Amana facility.
The apparent reprieve on what would have been a June 1 layoff of 651 workers, the most in Iowa at a single facility so far in 2025, is welcome news for the Amana area and for the state — at least temporarily. Iowa already has experienced the loss of 11,800 jobs over the past 12 months, including 8,000 in manufacturing, according to Iowa Workforce Development.
In a statement to the Des Moines Register on April 29, the company wrote: “On April 1, Whirlpool Corporation announced a production line adjustment at our operations in Amana, Iowa. We are delaying these workforce changes until later this year. We have committed to keeping our Amana employees updated and are grateful for their commitment and contributions.”
The previously announced layoff would have affected nearly one-third of the company’s workforce of 2,000 employees in Amana. Whirlpool has $17 billion in annual sales and 44,000 employees worldwide, according to its website.
When the layoffs were first announced, Whirlpool blamed the job cuts on reduced consumer demand, primarily refrigeration units.
Whirlpool stock has declined from its five-year high of $252.95, reached in May 2021. It was trading at $76.75 around mid-morning April 29 and was about $91 a share when the layoffs were first announced.
In a news release accompanying a disappointing Whirlpool earnings report in January, Whirlpool chair and CEO Marc Bitzer said the company would look to cut $200 million in costs "and position our business for the eventual U.S. housing recovery."
In its latest earnings report issued April 23, Whirlpool noted that the “U.S. tariff landscape” since 2020 resulted in Asian producers exploiting tariff loopholes “resulting in significant cost disadvantages for U.S.-made products.”
But the Whirlpool report also stated, “Expect new tariff policies to level the playing field, better supporting American manufacturing.”
The Amana brand was founded in 1934 by George Foerstner in Middle Amana and was credited with many firsts in the appliance industry, including the first upright freezer in 1947, the first side-by-side refrigerator in 1949 and the first consumer microwave, the famous Radarange, in 1967, according to the Amana brand website.
The Amana brand name was sold to Goodman Manufacturing in 1997 and then again to Maytag in 2002. Whirlpool acquired the Amana brand name in 2006 through its purchase of Maytag.