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 because 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 country,” he said 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 makes 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-made 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, saying 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 housing market has softened. Meanwhile, Whirlpool has said tariffs have supported investment in other parts of its U.S. operations. The company has increased sourcing from plants in Mexico and China and moved some specialty models to an updated plant in Ohio.
The changes underscore the still-evolving effects of Trump’s tariffs. While some companies say 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 country 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 maker 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 say anything about it until after I put out my statement,” Bohannan told Reuters. Bohannan said many supported Trump in 2024 because he talked about bringing back jobs. “But reckless, chaotic tariffs are not the way to do it.”
Miller-Meeks issued a statement saying, “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 said tariffs will revive domestic production by making imports more expensive.
“The Trump administration is implementing a nimble and multi-faceted strategy for America’s long-term reindustrialization,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai, adding that industry 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 said it would spend $300 million on its Marion and Clyde, Ohio, plants, which churn out washers and dryers. And in April, it said it would spend another $60 million on a new Ohio factory to produce plastic parts for its laundry business.
Whirlpool says the Iowa factory overhaul reflects its long-term commitment to making refrigerators domestically.
“We are one of the last who think we can be competitive making refrigerators in the U.S.,” said Jason Ebert, the company’s vice president of North American manufacturing.
He said the company had to cut jobs and assembly lines to make way for the new technology and assembly layouts needed to update the Amana operation. Those new lines are now being designed, he said. The company is also looking to bring more component manufacturing into the factory, a move it is undertaking as it updates other domestic plants.
Luke Harms, Whirlpool’s director of government relations, said trade policies have helped narrow the cost advantage as it competes with mostly low-cost importers, including Chinese manufacturers. For instance, the administration extended steel tariffs to derivative products, including appliances, and applied tariffs to the product’s full value. “That’s made us more confident in our modernization plan,” he said.
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 makes fewer than 250,000.
Kerry Waddell, who worked at the plant for 36 years and now serves as business agent for the union, said he has watched the plant steadily dwindle as Whirlpool invested heavily in its Mexico refrigeration operations.
Reflecting that dour mood, only a handful showed up for the last monthly union meeting held at a local community center where the layoffs were discussed. Another topic on the agenda: clearing furniture from their old union hall, which the diminished workforce can no longer support.
One attendee, Greg Cousins, said, “It’s all going to Mexico. I’ve thought that for the last three years.”
Cousins, a 63-year-old forklift driver, said he plans to retire next year and will be glad to be out of the plant. Asked about Whirlpool’s plan to modernize, he said he doesn’t see any evidence of that. “Just stuff going out.”
Others are more outspoken. Aaron Southard said he is a Republican and voted for Trump in the last election. But he said he is looking to support Democrats in the midterms. “We thought we’d be getting our jobs back,” said the 44-year-old auto press operator. “I feel betrayed – they’re out there stomping and saying Make America Great and bring jobs back.”
Many workers, including Southard, have started looking for other jobs, though he said he wanted to stay and fight. One place attracting workers from Whirlpool is Sub-Zero – the super high-end refrigerator maker, 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, said it would retool the U.S. plant to make laundry equipment.
The U.S. appliance industry remains under pressure. Trump’s tariff war sparked a flood of imports by appliance makers trying to beat the onset of the taxes, which killed pricing power for everyone amid an already-weak housing 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 House 17 months ago and issued a rapid series of tariff orders. The company just suspended its dividend, breaking a seven-decade streak of consecutive payouts.
Southard, the auto press operator, is peeved about that last move. He has worked at the plant for a decade and accumulated Whirlpool stock as part of his savings. “I used to make $600 a year from it,” he said, referring to the dividends. “Now, that’s gone.”
(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel;Editing by Howard Goller and Dan Burns)
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