Whirlpool Threatens Workers: Protesting Plant Closure Risks 'Future Jobs'

A major corporation planning to shut down a factory in Indiana has warned its union workers that they'll endanger their future job prospects if they protest the plant's closing.

In late August, Whirlpool Corporation announced that by June 2010 it would be closing the doors of its refrigerator plant in Evansville, Ind., and moving its operations to Mexico, citing poor sales due to a depressed housing market. The town of Evansville -- which President Obama has visited frequently -- was set to lose an additional 1,100 jobs.

The labor community, naturally, was in an uproar, pointing to the $20 million that the Whirlpool Corporation received as part of the president's economic stimulus package. And since the announcement, a number of efforts were made to persuade the company to revisit its decision, with union leaders petitioning state and local officials to explore avenues to keep the plant on site and the mayor forming a "rapid response team" to help support soon-to-be-unemployed workers.

Activists planned a high-profile protest for this Friday, with AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka visiting the plant for the first time. But Whirlpool says the effort is futile -- they are fully committed to shutting the plant down. The company, however, still seems quite wary of the potential for bad publicity. In a memo sent to its employees and passed along to the Huffington Post, Paul Coburn, division vice president for Whirlpool's Evansville Division, offers a fairly explicit warning to his workers: If they join Trumka's protest they would seriously risk future employment opportunity.

"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," Coburn writes.

"With this in mind, we have shared our concern with Local 808 leaders that these negative activities will only hamper employees when they look for future jobs. The entire community is aware and sympathetic towards the situation we all face. 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. We hope that this is not the case, but think it is certainly a consideration."

A union official who passed the memo to the Huffington Post labeled it a "potentially illegal" effort to suppress speech and said that the local union is examining whether it violates labor law rules. The irony was not lost that a company closing a plant to ship jobs abroad would threaten workers with the possibility of unemployment even after it moved.

Whirlpool did not immediately return a request for comment.

READ THE FULL MEMO HERE:

whirlpool

Comments

[wowisdabomb]

09:45 AM on 03/08/2010

Whirlpools biggest problem is the fact that their products are horrible junk, I have a brand new Kitchen Aid Dishwasher that is only 2 years old and needs to have the water pump replaced, and they warranty does not cover labor. They have been using low end components and selling them under other brand names like Kitchen Aid, but they have the same internals as a $200 cheap unit.

It is no wonder these companies are going under.

[Szewczyk]

05:22 PM on 02/25/2010

The sanctimonious and hypocritical tone of the threatening notice to the Evansville employees is really something. Paul Coburn, the author, smarmily noted, for instance, that the "entire community" sympathized with "the situation we all face." If I didn't have to work tomorrow I'd drive to Evansville to participate in the protest. In fact, I'll bet it would do wonders for the President's approval ratings if he showed up there. Hey, other Presidents have showed up without notice or warning in Bagdhad. Why not Evansville, Indiana? I wonder if this Paul Coburn character is losing HIS job?

[chewy87]

06:21 PM on 02/26/2010

yes Paul Coburn will be losing his job just like all the rest of the people there besides the engineers they are keeping on.

[otherdebi]

01:22 PM on 02/25/2010

The local Evansville, IN plant is planning a protest on Saturday 2/27/10. I see this as futile. It won't work since Whirlpool has already made up their minds to move to Mexico. Then Whirlpool is threatening their employees that get involved with the protest. How bad is that? Whipool needs to just suck it up. They decided to take this plant to Mexico. If the employees want to protest then they have the American right to do so. But when Whirlpool starts threatening them that's bad!

[otherdebi]

01:13 PM on 02/25/2010

How can and why would Whirlpool threaten their employees to use their US given right to assemble and protest. I have a good friend that works there and will soon lose his job. It's awful and I feel for him (I've been unemployed for the past 2 years) but they've made up their minds. I, personally, don't think any protests will change their minds. It's too bad they decided to shut down this plant in Evansville, IN that's been here for decades. When I first moved here in the 1970's the top employers were Whirlpool, Alcoa, and the various coal mines. Well the coal mines are gone, Alcoa is still there, but Whirlpool is leaving. I hate it that they're leaving but so be it. Here in southwestern Indiana we have very few jobs available. I hate that these people are joining the unemployed. I need a job too! Personally I won't be buying any more Whirlpool products. I think that's where to hit them. Don't purchase anything made in Mexico. I'm not sure how many other Whirlpool plants are left in the US so I'd look at where they are built before buying. DON'T BUY MEXICAN MADE WHIRLPOOL PRODUCTS NO MATTER WHAT THE PRICE!!!!

[advisor]

07:17 PM on 03/01/2010

Whirlpool Manufacturing Locations in the USA

Clyde, Ohio – top load washing machines
Marion, Ohio – top load and front load dryers
Findlay, Ohio – dishwashers
Cleveland, Tennessee – wall ovens, cooktops, slide-in ranges
Tulsa, Oklahoma – freestanding gas/electric ranges
Amana, Iowa – refrigerators (all bottom freezers)
Fort Smith, Arkansas – refrigerators (side by side)

[PWM]

01:04 PM on 02/25/2010

Reagan started a crusade against unions and to destroy them gave tax breaks to big business to move overseas. Reagan and his ilk justfied it on the grounds that it would make products cheaper overhear benefiting the consumer.

Well. I invite anyone to go into any GM, or Ford, Showroom and check the prices of cars made in America (unionized) and in Mexico (nonunionized) and tell me if the Mexican car is selling cheaper?

[otherdebi]

01:40 PM on 02/25/2010

I had forgot that tidbit. Thanks for reminding me. Gee I hope Regan is resting in peace! He sure left the rest of us in turmoil!

[Electronicsboy]

11:10 AM on 02/25/2010

There doesn’t seem to be much sympathy for the plight of unionized American workers—even from American workers. Corporate media have done a good job of brainwashing the great unwashed.

We didn’t “have to” deindustrialize. It’s not as though America doesn’t use appliances or other manufactured goods. And NAFTA was a neoliberal betrayal of the American worker.

China is going to kick our ass because they have a strong industrial base and a huge middle class fed by a specialized high-tech and financial workforce. Even U.S. Companies don’t give a hang about the American market anymore. Everybody wants to sell in China and India. We’re toast, thanks to greedy CEOs and stupid working-class Republicans who staunchly supported (and still do today) the very a$$holes who were screwing them.

[Zrae]

12:57 PM on 02/25/2010

Iagree on the sales over seas. I would say boycott them but it wouldn't hurt to much. We'd have to boycott maytag, Kitchen aide, Amana, Hoover and who knows who else they own.

[otherdebi]

01:16 PM on 02/25/2010

THEN JUST DO IT!

[otherdebi]

01:18 PM on 02/25/2010

We're not talking about the sales overseas but the manufacturing overseas and in Mexico. I say boycott all these companies that move their manufacturing to foreign countries. Buy American made products. If it costs a little more, so be it. Remember you're saving American jobs!

[Zrae]

12:58 PM on 02/25/2010

Dang wireless keyboard!

[Gordon Matthews]

10:39 AM on 02/25/2010

See bhbanco.org to read about Whirlpool's treatment of it's employees and of the city where the head office is located (Benton Harbor). Rep. to congress Fred Upton is Whirlpool heir. The entire story involves corporate facism (not too strong a term), stealing lakeshore for a massive golf development, creating and presiding over deadly poverty, and a huge dose of racism. The Whirlpool/Benton Harbor/St. Joseph situation would make a blockbuster movie or documentary. It's ongoing and getting worse.

[sueinmn]

10:20 AM on 02/25/2010

Government needs to cut off all tax incentives to this company that leaves its workers behind for a cheaper workforce. It is a global market today, let the global society be their customer and give them NO MORE American tax credits! They wish to do business here, make them pay unless they remain here on our soil. Havent we had enough yet of supporting those leaving us behind?

[otherdebi]

01:43 PM on 02/25/2010

I would hope all tax credits would be cancelled once a company announces a move to a foreign country.

[sueinmn]

10:15 AM on 02/25/2010

Shifting blame on the unions is a shell game at best. Did they use the stimulus 20 million to build the plant in Mexico. Perhaps a claw back of these funds would be in order. I for one will NEVER purchase another Whirlpool product. Am I alone?

[otherdebi]

01:48 PM on 02/25/2010

No you're not alone! I will certainly check where things are made before buying them anymore, when I get to the point of being able to afford to buy anything! I've been unemployed for over 2 years and cannot afford to buy anyway. This really pisses me off though. I live close to Evansville and I don't want to see any more people added to the unemployment list. I can't find a job as it is! My Son's best friend went back to work there since he couldn't find a job. I hate it that he's going to lose his job in a couple of months. He was already laid off from there. They were more than happy to hire him back since he was experienced. He took it since he couldn't find another job. He had to work somewhere! But I'm so pissed at Whirlpool about moving to Mexico I could spit! How can they do this to this small community? They have no heart!

[DavidShort]

09:48 PM on 02/25/2010

No, you are not alone. I moved to LG products years ago.

[hyperlexis]

11:37 PM on 02/25/2010

So you buy LG Lucky Goldstar products from Korea?

[liveordie]

10:11 AM on 02/25/2010

You've just lost a customer Whirlpool. Coercion for the sake of a buck doesn't wash well in America. Your move to Mexico is un-American. Good bye and good failure.

[MoeB]

11:37 AM on 02/25/2010

Agreed 100%. They can officially say hello to bad publicity from me!

[mikegriffith]

07:43 AM on 02/25/2010

"A union official who passed the memo to the Huffington Post labeled it a "potentially illegal" effort to suppress speech and said that the local union is examining whether it violates labor law rules."

Oh, come on. A company executive warning workers that other employers might not want to hire them if they protest a plant closure is "potentially illegal"? The union frets about "suppressing speech" while it seeks to intimidate Whirlpool from exercising its right of free speech.

Personally, I think the executive's warning was foolish and counter-productive. If I were that executive, I would absolutely understand why the workers would want to protest the closure. I'd be inclined to join them, for that matter.

But the union's attempt to criminalize the executive's warning is disturbing. This is the kind of coercion and hardball that has given so many unions a bad name.

[returntocommonsense]

07:55 AM on 02/25/2010

Actually this has nothing to do with free speech. Depending on which state you live in, an attempt at union busting could be illegal. Don't know what the laws are in Indiana.

The purpose of this memo is to intimidate people - period.

[Pippen]

08:02 AM on 02/25/2010

You sound like Sean Hannity's propaganda writer.

Threatening to offer bad reference to employees who's ONLY negative act against the dedication offered the company was to protest LOSING THEIR JOB is an organized funded effort by the company to suppress future unrelated employment.

That's not only a violation of Free Speech but a violation of "Pursuit of Happiness" clause. They have NO RIGHT to alter or say disparaging things about employees to future employers about these protesters.

I'd lawyer up and sink my legal teeth into Whirlpool's parent company and I wouldn't let go.

Class action.

Cut and dry case. It's pay day people, line up, beers on Whirlpool.

[MoeB]

11:41 AM on 02/25/2010

Exactly! Especially when the company praises the Evansville branch for continuing to work hard. How nice of them to encourage them to work harder on a job that they won't even have come June...and THEN to in a roundabout way threaten them if they protest the closing of the plant. It's very slimy...should the workers be jumping for joy that while receiving $20 million in TAXPAYER money, they're being laid off? Oh, and don't bother to complain about it, because that's bad PR for the company (that's laying you off)???

[chewy87]

07:12 PM on 02/26/2010

The memo was not threatening at all. There have been actual employers in the area that have shown concern and apprehension in hiring workers who are known to come from the Evansville plant because of situations like the rally today. The people at Whirlpool know the image that they are giving off to the business community which is why they expressed their CONCERN not threat. There was absolutely nothing illegal about the memo sent to the employees. People are taking the letter and twisting it into anything they can, because I guess they have too much time on their hands.

[FightingTheRight]

07:36 AM on 02/25/2010

Corporate leaders always talk about the "Global Economy", but what they really mean is the "Global Workforce".

Whirlpool isn't building refrigerators, with the hope of selling them in Mexico.

Just like tellemarketers in India aren't interrupting their fellow citizens dinner, to sell them cell phone service.

[LizinOhio]

07:30 AM on 02/25/2010

My dryer died a month ago and I went to sears and picked up a Whirlpool dryer made in Ohio. The matching washer is on sale and I will be buying it because the factory where it is constructed is in Clyde, Ohio. The Clyde plant is not union and, hopefully, will remain there for years to come. This does not mean that I am anti-union, it only means that I am willing to purchase something that still gives over 3000 people in Ohio a job.
The real problem with manufacturing jobs leaving our country isn't because of Unions, it's the same for Whirlpool as it is with any other corporation in America today .... an overabundance of greed due to a lack of corporate patriotism and no government deterrants for sending American jobs out of the country.

[hyperlexis]

08:06 AM on 02/25/2010

It's also the fact that our manufacturers have to pay enormous healthcare costs as composed to other countries. Environmental and workplace safety and child labor law compliance, etc., are one thing, but health care is an issue that should have been resolved decades ago. Hopefully now something will be done.

[MoeB]

11:42 AM on 02/25/2010

Single-payer would've eliminated that burden on businesses...but alas, that's not even an option (and now apparently, neither is the public option).

[FightTheLies]

07:24 AM on 02/25/2010

So much talk about unions and strongarming the businesses. If it wasn't for unions, our children would be working at the age of 9. We wouldn't have a 40 hr work week, FMLA wouldn't exist, safety procedures wouldn't exist, and we'd be no better off than a thrid world nation. I'm not saying that unions are the perfect answer, but don't talk about them as if they've done nothing good for the country. Good unions should be praised while the bad ones weeded out.

Make that distinction, and we'll have some common ground.

[LizinOhio]

07:32 AM on 02/25/2010

Fanned!

[PKW57]

06:48 AM on 02/25/2010

If it wasn't for the unions Whirlpool could probably afford to continue building refrigerators in the US.
Same old story -- the unions drive up the cost of manufacturing and then cry when the jobs go to a country where the workers can't extort the manufacturer.
Every major unionized industry in America is in trouble these days. Coincidence? I think not.
We would all be better off if we moved the union workers to Mexico along with the manufacturing.

[OLEGAR]

07:59 AM on 02/25/2010

So you favor corporations fleeing the local areas because the union represented workers make a "living" wage, work a 40 hour week, get some paid vacations and may get company subsidized health insurance premiums?

You "UNION BASHERS" are so ill informed it is pathetic. Corporations pull up stakes and move to where ever for several reasons, only one being cheap labor. Tax avoidance, less concern with worker safety, no responsibility for the environment and frequent use of child labor in these sweat shops.

Yes!!! Lets send all the good paying jobs in manufacturing, engineering, technology and service to Mexico, China and points east and south ! ! And when all the good jobs are gone and the flood of cheap crappy goods reach the U.S. where will the money come from to pay for other than bare subsistence? Oh Mickey Ds, and Walmart promise great incomes that will make America strong again. How will jobless and under-employed men and women afford skyrocketing health insurance premiums, mortgage payments and have anything left over to maybe, just maybe, be able to boost the national economy by buying a new car, boat or camper?

Did the Union workers who lost jobs also lose their right to protest yet another corporation, with no conscience, deciding to strip them of their current incomes and who now threaten "blacklisting" for daring to complain.

[cirrus7]

01:16 AM on 02/26/2010

Not True. Besides the threat of plant closings, unions now have to make so many concessions due to rapacious greed of health insurance companies. Example: G.M. and Chrysler NOW hire at LOWER wages and benefits than non-union Toyota, Honda etc.