Whirlpool producing last refrigerators in Evansville, Ind., as production shifts to Mexico

[Bozita]

Source: AP

Last Updated: June 25. 2010 9:26AM
Whirlpool producing last refrigerators in Evansville, Ind., as production shifts to Mexico
Associated Press

Evansville, Ind. -- The Whirlpool Corp. plant in Evansville that has been the site of protests over its closure is producing its final refrigerators.

The plant's production line is shutting down today, meaning the loss of some 600 jobs. About 450 other workers were laid off in March when Whirlpool ended its second production shift.

Company human resources director Tom Webster says a contractor will then begin removing equipment and furniture from the plant. He says the plant's future hasn't been decided.

The company announced last year that it would shut down the factory and move production to Mexico.

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100625/BIZ/6250406/1361/Whirlpool-producing-last-refrigerators-in-Evansville--Ind.--as-production-shifts-to-Mexico

---

Next stop, ... China.

[dgibby]

1. No more Whirlpool products for me.

Damn! I really liked Whirlpool. Oh, well....

[blue_onyx]

6. Why?

More than likely, the other brands are made outside the US too.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

2. Was Whirlpool the last appliance manufacturer with a factory in

the U.S.? Any others left?

[dmallind]

3. Yes ---Whirlpool

Massive plants in Ohio, which also saw expanded production in their latest shift.

[jojog]

30. No - GE Makes in USA

Refrigerators in Bloomington Indiana, Louisville Ky, Selmer Tn and Decatur Al.

[lunatica]

4. Just wait till we all have to go South of the Border to get work

For slave wages like the ones the corporations are paying the Mexicans.

It should be against the law. Really. Whirlpool should have to pay dearly for making that move during a national emergency. Oh yeah. No one has declared one yet. OK. Move along. Nothing to see here.

[B3Nut]

5. As far as I am concerned,

this is as good as treason. Too bad we don't have lawmakers with the guts and real concern for the people to impale these CEO's on stakes, metaphorically speaking.

Grrrrrrrrrrr :mad:

[Romulox]

7. DUers love their Toyotas, but turn into raging patriot over their clothes washers?

Whatever. :eyes:

[ehrnst]

10. Toyota has a plant near Evansville that is staying in the area. (nt)

[Romulox]

12. And Whirlpool has plants in Ohio and Michigan. What is your point?

That outsourcing goes too far when it affects YOUR community? And why should I care if there is a Toyota plant in Indiana, when they are closing down GM plants in Michigan? :wtf:

Again, whatever. :hi:

[ehrnst]

14. My Toyota came from that plant. One of the reasons I like it. Sorry. (nt)

[Romulox]

16. The only thing you have to be sorry for is not understanding that I care as much

(as little) about jobs in your community as you do about mine.

My thesis is that anxiety surrounding that very knowledge ungirds the majority of these threads. This one hasn't disappointed! :hi:

[LanternWaste]

35. The alleged anxiety appears to be coming from both sides equally.

The alleged anxiety appears to be coming from both sides equally. But I imagine we see what we want to...

[Romulox]

38. If the "free-trade" frauds are feeling anxious, then this is indeed progress.

But I imagine we see what we want to..

Indeed! :hi:

[LanternWaste]

41. Upwind as well as down wind.

Upwind as well as downwind. Anxiety for all. Flood. Fire. Famine.

[Romulox]

49. Inane non-sequiturs, even!

Weak response, as per your usual! :rofl: :hi:

[Brother Buzz]

11. Californians loved their Toyotas until their plant was shuttered and moved to Texas

Now, where the parts were made for those vehicles is another story, that's truly a multinational enterprise.

[shanti]

8. crap

:( my last fridge was a whirlpool (from costco) and is running like a top, as opposed to the GE before that which was a lemon from the start. i wonder if costco will switch brands now.

[TatonkaJames]

9. Amexico

Why don't we just hand Mexico the keys to the door ?
How patriotic - another corporation going long for
profits over quality workmanship. This counters everything that is
necessary to be done to force Mexico to build their own economy.
I say fine any corporation that leaves to make more profits over
keeping American jobs here. If they're going to screw us, screw them.

[savalez]

42. Curious. Why do you think Mexicans cannot produce "Quality workmanship"?

[d_r]

13. A week ago I had to go to walmart.

We were traveling out of state and needed certain stuff, and that is where I found myself. I was struck that a big large area up front was full of t-shirts and other products bearing American flags, with lots of signs advertising "American Summer." I had to look. So I went up to one of the American Flag t-shirts and looked at the label. Made in Nicaragua.

Now, there was a time when red-blooded American shoppers would have found at least some irony in an American flag t-shirt being made by "communist labor," at least I think there was, but I guess all of the cheap stuff we get from China has erased that.

But here's the juxtaposition. I go back to the home we were visiting, and on TV there are people on CNN arguing that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from American workers. The common thoughts popped in to my head at first - that most American workers aren't looking for jobs picking tomatoes for pennies a bucket - but then I had a memory leak through from 9th grade civics class, back at good old Jessie Clark Jr. High in Lexington Kentucky.

It was in the early 1980's, and I was the last wave of cold-war era children whose civic classes were heavily flavored by Americanism vs. Communism (in twelfth grade in Florida we had a dedicated AVC class, my class in 1986 was the last year it was mandated). Ninth grade civics in Kentucky was the class were we read things like "1984" and "Animal Farm." I remembered one point that the teacher made from Dos Kapital - that when the proletariat viewed resources as in short supply, they would turn their fear and anger towards the classes below them, rather than above them. Instead of getting at angry at the rich for accumulating more resources, the working classes would fight against each other. Examples of this given at the time included anger at immingrants and racial segregation.

This reminded me exactly of what has been going on. Over the last decade, we all know that the "rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer." And the disintegrating middle class has turned their anger to the poor, not towards the rich. Some of the reactions I've seen to the banking crisis were like this. People would blame the poor - "the government made the banks give loans to people who shouldn't have qualified," as if it was the fault of the poor person for trying to buy a house. Nevermind the crazy paper work tricks the lenders were making, forget about the crooks who were betting that people would face foreclosure. Working folks were going to real estate agents and mortgage lenders - the professionals in this field that they trusted to work with them - and told that 1,200 square foot house was worth $300,000, and even though you can't afford that, you can get an interest-only loan that you can afford, then in five years you can just re-finance because you'll have so much equity in the house because it will be worth $600,000 in five years. That is the sort of ponzi scheme pyramid the lenders built, and the insured themselves so that when it collapsed they were fine; but the home owners now faced foreclosures, and even people who didn't take some sort of "exotic" loan found themselves upside-down on unsellable homes when the bubble busted.

The same thing is happening with employment. It benefits big-business for there to be a moderately high unemployment rate. Not too high, because then nobody can buy their products. But high enough that they don't have to search for employees. Right now, employers can demand more work from employees and pay them less, because no one wants to be on the job market. Jobs are had to find, so people will stick with what they have whether the conditions are acceptable or not. That increases the profit to the big guys on the top.

American jobs aren't being lost to illegal immigrants, they are being lost to off-shoring. Why does anyone have to come here from Mexico when the companies just take the jobs right to them? The states with the lowest unemployment rates are the states with jobs that are difficult or impossible to send to other countries were lower wages can be paid - things like energy extraction (coal and oil are where they are, you can't send those jobs overseas), and agricultural production. Agricultural production is an important example. Back in the 1980's, Ronald Reagan's trickle-down recession resulted in the loss of many family farms. Remember farm-aid? Those were consolidated into factory farms by the mega-rich. There are still family farms of course, but such a growing percentage of what we buy in the stores is from these mass-produced mega-sized factory farms. If we are losing jobs to illegals, these are the types of jobs we are losing. And we lost those because we lost family farms and handed over the land and large-scale production to the ultra-rich, who will hire the cheapest labor they can.

The states with the highest unemployment rates are those that had the most solid economies in decades past - the states that were based on manufacturing. Our steel and textile industries died years ago, of course, but we've continued to lose jobs in all types of manufacturing over seas. There is still manufacturing taking place in the USA, but we have lost many jobs overseas. The idea of a service economy was a naive fiction, in my opinion. I just don't think that you can have an economy that doesn't have "making something" at its base. You can if you are a small tax-haven island, but not a nation the size of the USA. Now even service jobs (like call centers, transcriptionists, etc.) have been moved to other countries.

And as the middle class disappears and jobs with decent salaries dry up, the middle class blames the poor. It must be those welfare queens taking my money. Those bums who want free health care. Those illegal immigrants cleaning houses and plucking chickens. They use thinly veiled euphemisms like "thug" and "gangster" that belie not only their racism, but their fear. They are afraid that a poor person is going to get something that is theirs. So they buy guns and circle the wagons and want their country back. They don't get that the rich man took it, not the poor man.

And they keep buying cheap shit from China at Walmart. On their credit cards.

[seabeckind]

15. Excellent post n/t

[Hulk]

20. EXCELLENT POST!!!!! One small correction....

"I just don't think that you can have an economy that doesn't have "making something" at its base."

We make bombs, bullets, tanks, jets fighters, rockets, and we supply our blood with uniforms. We have products....they are just products of WAR. It's ALL we make anymore. We really are a disgusting nation, from the world's point of view. Our international image is fading fast...and for damn good reason.

[BumRushDaShow]

39. But don't forget what else we make!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964245-1,00.html>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964245-1,00.html]

Probably our biggest export! :rofl:

[pundaint]

26. It's a tough choice - buying American stuff mail-order, or shopping local stores which stock only

foreign product. I thank Congress for paying back their sponsors by allowing Americans workers to be screwed by foreign tariffs while not being protected by US tariffs - another case of corporate influence manipulating Washington DC against the American People.

[happygoluckytoyou]

31. IT IS NOW... AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN.... CLASS WARFARE... AND--->

THE ABILITY OF THE WEALTHY TO FIND WEDGE ISSUES OR TO MISINFORM THE POOR INTO THINKING THEY SHOULD SIDE WITH THE WEALTHY.

YOU KNOW THAT MOST WEALTHY PEOPLE COULDN'T CARE ABOUT ABORTION, GAY RIGHTS, ETC.... BUT IT MAKES FOR A GREAT DIVIDER AMONG THE VOTERS

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A WORKER... BUT THAT "SENIOR EXECUTIVE GRAND" TITLE MAKES YOU THINK YOU ARE ON THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID


YOU ARE NOT
YOU ARE JUST COG NUMBER 994839400 (FILL IN YOUR SS NUMBER)..... AND ANY WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION SHOULD PUT MORE IN YOUR POCKET

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Blue_Tires]

37. well said

excellent points

[Desertrose]

44. Yup. Unfortunately true.n/t

[d_r]

46. thanks for the affirmations

You all inspired me to edit that and post it on a blog - I've been thinking it a few days now and wanted to say it somewhere.

http://drmeece.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-summer-time-political-post.html

[xxqqqzme]

17. Isn't Whirlpool owned by a Dutch

multi-national corporation? Whirlpool makes Kenmores I believe.

[Hulk]

18. "buy American".....means nothing anymore. You can't!

We make NOTHING but bombs and jet fighters in this country. We really are a parasite to the world. I'm starting to agree with those that hate us. I think they have some validity to their hatred.

[Bozita]

21. IIRC, we can't make missiles without chips from China.

[Brother Buzz]

28. Sandia National Laboratories now makes the microchips for nuclear weapons and other sophisticated...

national security systems. There were holes and back doors it the systems that were closed a few years ago, but civilian chips are still vulnerable to malfeasances.

[proteus_lives]

27. "We really are a parasite to the world. I'm starting to agree with those that hate us."

:eyes:

[dmallind]

32. We make 1.8T of manufacturing output. Much more than entire DoD budget. NT

[Hubert Flottz]

19. Their stuff has been sub-standard for years anyway.

Now it will be even worse.

[Iowa]

45. Pretty much all appliances are crap anymore...

Is it even possible to buy quality? I have an old Kenmore washer that I bought new 33 years ago. Kenmore was made by Whirlpool to Sears specifications (and Sears was VERY picky and demanded high quality in those days). This washer is almost as good as the day I bought it. I had a repairman in once to replace a cheap part, and he suggested I continue using it forever, or until they can no longer get parts for it, because they don't make them like that anymore.

I don't think it's even possible to find quality anymore - at any price.

In case anyone is interested... I had another repairman tell me that he buys either Whirlpool or GE, because they use pretty much standard/interchangeable parts. He said he won't buy Maytag for that reason.

[proteus_lives]

22. Fuckers.

It will be a cold day in hell before this Hoosier buys another Whirlpool product.

[Hulk]

23. You may as well quit buying ANY applicances....>NONE are made in USA....NONE!

[dmallind]

34. Bullshit - huge Whirlpool plants in OH are not imaginary. NT

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bongbong]

25. A mega-conundrum

A few musings on the economic conundrum that is illustrated by the Whirlpool closing....

You can still buy appliances made in America, but they are more expensive than the ones made overseas. (Sub-zero, Jenn-Air, Viking - aren't some of those made here?) The fact that a lot of people have realized is that one of the core contradictions in capitalism is that EVERYONE wants to MAKE a lot of money, but PAY as little as possible (whether it is to pay for purchases or pay employees).

That causes a race to the bottom, but the people who have enough dough to buy legislators won't be suffering. Amazing how a guy is so powerful that he can actually get his PERSONAL case heard by the SCOTUS (the Skilling decision of a few days ago). That case, I feel, really marks the full return of the Gilded Age and the full repeal of FDR's reforms. As John Oliver on the Daily Show said the other day, "Welcome to the third world"

It really is class war, and the rich have bought every news outlet and are going to do it to the net as well (with the "net neutrality" decisions). Ironically, you could take carefully-selected excerpts from Das Kapital, put them on a placard, show up at a teabagger festival - and you'll be heralded as a prophet (the kind of thing guerrilla protesters like Billionaires For Bush should do)

I see little hope, economically, for America at this point. Sorry for the gloom-n-doom. :shrug:

[savalez]

43. I agree bongbong. I also find it funny that most republicans

seem to THINK they are all in the same class that you speak of.

[superconnected]

29. Blame the workers Blame the workers. Support that companies decision for higher profit margin.

And dang it test those laid off workers for drugs, how dare those dead beats just collect unemployment.

**sorry, wrong site...

[SoapBox]

36. Oh RushTurdlicans? Jobs? What about jobs?

...how ya all gonna save / create jobs?

*crickets*

[OhioChick]

40. More jobs down the shitter n/t

[Vinca]

47. Pretty soon Mexico will have to erect a fence to keep us out

since that's where the jobs are. No more Whirlpool appliances for us. The race to the bottom continues.

[Hepburn]

48. Well, that does cut down on the illegals from Mexico, right?

Take the industry to them instead of them coming to us. That's gotta be a GOP idea on how to handle the problem of immigration!

[Blue Owl]

50. In unrelated news, CEO profits are up

Rich get richer; poor get poorer.