The Whirlpool Corporation announced (today/yesterday) it’s cutting one-percent of its global workforce, with all of those cuts at two Tennessee plants – one in LaVergne and one in Cleveland.
The 730 manufacturing jobs will move to Tulsa, Oklahoma and to a plant in Mexico. Whirlpool dominates the appliance sector with more than a 50-percent market share but rising materials costs have led to several plant shutdowns across the country.
Analyst Laura Champine [Sham-pine] of Morgan Keegan says the simple downsizing is a positive indicator of the state’s manufacturing climate.
“If anything it says something for the cost in Tennessee that they’re only announcing a paring and not a shut down. The company shut down facilities in Illinois, in Newton, Iowa, in Searcy, Arkansas.”
Champine says it’s smart to keep the LaVergne operation alive since the plant isn’t unionized. 330 positions on the air purifier lines there – however – will be eliminated by the end of the year.
LaVergne vice mayor Jerry Gann believes the impacts won’t be devastating since Rutherford County is experiencing such rapid development.
“There’s lots of other manufacturers and distribution facilities looking for skilled labor which is exactly what these jobs are so I think that our market is in much better shape to absorb those jobs that are going to be lost at Whirlpool.”
The ramping down of production in Cleveland, where freestanding ovens and ranges are assembled, will be completed by the end of 2008.
Adaeze Elechi contributed to this report.
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