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Whirlpool to close Indiana center, move work to Michigan

 IBJ Staff and Associated Press
August 6, 2012
Keywords
Manufacturers, Manufacturing & Technology
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Whirlpool Corp. announced Monday it plans to shut down the last of its operations in a southern Indiana city, a plant that employed more than 1,500 workers a few years ago.

Whirlpool said it would close its Refrigeration Product Development Center in Evansville by the end of 2014 and consolidate the center's work at facilities near the company's Benton Harbor, Mich., headquarters. Whirlpool expects to spend about $18 million on renovations and equipment.

Whirlpool had about 230 employees at the Evansville center last year when it agreed to return state tax incentives for not meeting job-retention commitments.

Some Evansville employees might be given the chance to relocate to Michigan, the Evansville Courier & Press and WFIE-TV reported.

"This decision was difficult and in no way reflects on the quality of work in Evansville or the support from the local community or the state of Indiana," Whirlpool spokesman Kristine Vernier said.

Whirlpool's refrigerator plant in Evansville had about 1,100 employees when it was closed in 2010 and its production work was shifted to Mexico. The company had cut about 300 jobs from the factory in the two previous years.

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  • can't read
    AndreAugust 7, 2012 2:14 PM
    At Stephen, no moving jobs top Mexico as the article states is not overseas but it's not in Indiana. Neither is Michigan
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • Whirlpool
    BttB90August 7, 2012 1:57 PM
    The real truth is that the greedy unions drove the cost of doing business out of Indiana and off to Mexico and Tennessee with just a small group going to Michigan. Many companies have found that there are thousands of productive workers happy to be employed in the south. The unions have become the scourge of the nation and the sum total of the reason for the depletion of our manufacturing jobs. They are as unamerican as communist china and reek of a socialist structure where only a few are lapped in luxury while the others get the scraps. See you in Tennessee!
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • Mixed Emotions.
    Stephen PrideAugust 6, 2012 9:30 PM
    I hate to see that Indiana is losing valuable manufacturing jobs, but at least those jobs are not moving off shore. That's a plus.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment

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