Laid off from Whirlpool.

What Whirlpool layoffs have meant for employees

If you worked the lines at Amana, the cuts have come in a series of state notices since 2025. Whirlpool calls it a multi-year modernization that keeps refrigerators in production while adding warehousing, parts production and sub-assembly work, Manufacturing Dive reported, and in February 2026 it told employees to anticipate more cuts in the second quarter. A union official told Business Record the plant would be down to one assembly line on one shift by that summer, with 500 to 600 people left. Its chief executive wrote in March 2026 that the company was exploring ways to bring new production into Amana. For anyone already laid off, that smaller plant is the backdrop to every question about coming back.

Coming back is where the union contract matters most. A Whirlpool spokesperson told KCRG that laid-off union members can be recalled for a set number of years based on tenure and seniority, and called the chance of a recall low. Whirlpool didn't expect to rehire any of the workers in the March 2026 round, Business Record reported, and union officials said many of them had seven or eight years at the plant. On severance and health care benefits, Whirlpool said it would follow applicable law and the collective bargaining agreement. If you were in IAM Local 1526, it's worth asking the local for the contract's layoff, recall and benefits language, including the date your recall rights run out.

Whirlpool's filings count its cuts in dollars. Its second-quarter 10-Q puts the 2025 global workforce plans at $20 million, primarily employee termination costs, and says the plans it committed to in March 2026, in the US and abroad, include severance charges. The same note shows Whirlpool still carried $32 million in employee termination liability at the end of June 2026, money accrued for cuts and not yet paid out. If you're salaried and leaving with a separation agreement, you can ask which plan the payment comes from, how the amount was figured, and for a copy of the plan document itself.

Whirlpool has had to bargain over plant closings before. When it set out to close three Maytag plants after the 2006 purchase, the Associated Press reported that it still had to negotiate the closing terms with the unions at Newton and Herrin, while it estimated $135 million to $145 million in severance or relocation costs for administrative employees. At Amana the Machinists union has told members facing layoffs that it will keep fighting for every right, benefit and resource they're owed and hold Whirlpool accountable at the bargaining table. If you're weighing a job elsewhere while that plays out, consider asking the local whether taking it affects your recall rights.

For anyone laid off in Iowa, Iowa's claimant handbook sets the limits of a claim. A claim pays at most 16 times your weekly benefit amount or a third of your base-period wages, whichever is less, though a permanent closing by your last employer can raise that. Severance pay and vacation pay come off a week's benefit dollar for dollar, and the weekly certification asks for any severance received that week. Iowa pays nothing for weeks before a claim's effective date or for a week without its certification, so if you've been laid off, filing in the first week you want paid protects those weeks. You can file online or at an Iowa WORKS Center. Whirlpool's chief executive wrote in a March 2026 letter that the company was working directly with Iowa Workforce Development on assistance and training, and our Iowa unemployment benefits page has the state's other rules.

A sourced history of Whirlpool layoffs

• July 2026, Apodaca, Mexico, manufacturing plant closing

  Whirlpool expected the Supsa plant to stop production by the second quarter of 2027 and put employee-related costs at about $31 million, the company's 10-Q restructuring note said.

• June 2026, notice for 288 more Amana jobs

  Whirlpool's June 4 notice to Iowa, logged in our tracker, covered 288 jobs from July 5. The Machinists union said the 288 were Local 1526 members and that the plant would shut two weeks before their last day.

• March 2026, workforce reduction plans in the US and abroad

  Whirlpool committed to workforce reductions and footprint changes in the United States and other countries, booking $12 million in employee termination costs, its second-quarter 10-Q shows.

• February 2026, notice for 341 Amana jobs

  Whirlpool's February 17 notice, in our tracker, covered 341 jobs from March 9. The company told KCRG the cuts were part of a multi-year transformation phasing out older refrigerator models, and that more reductions might come in the spring.

• October 2025, fewer than 25 roles in Benton Harbor

  A spokesperson called the layoffs another step in the company's evolution and said those affected would get comprehensive transition benefits, including severance, WNDU reported, citing The Herald-Palladium.

• April 2025, Amana notice for 651, amended to 250

  Whirlpool told Iowa Workforce Development it would cut 651 Amana workers, then amended the notice to the 250 it let go in July 2025, citing voluntary departures and retirements in between, Manufacturing Dive reported.

• April 2024, about 1,000 salaried jobs worldwide

  Whirlpool was cutting 1,000 salaried jobs around the world as it aimed to trim up to $400 million in costs that year, the Wall Street Journal reported, according to Reuters. A company filing put the year's expected restructuring charges at about $50 million.

• August 2009, Evansville, Indiana, refrigerator plant closing

  Whirlpool said it would close the Evansville plant and cut 1,100 jobs by mid-2010, moving top-freezer refrigerator production to Mexico, the Associated Press reported. A spokeswoman said the decision was about cost and had nothing to do with how the workers performed.

• May 2006, closings of three Maytag plants announced

  Weeks after completing its Maytag purchase, Whirlpool said it would eliminate 4,500 jobs, closing washer and dryer plants in Newton, Iowa, Herrin, Illinois, and Searcy, Arkansas, and Maytag's Newton headquarters, while adding about 1,500 jobs, the Associated Press reported.

What to do if you're laid off from Whirlpool

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Whirlpool's biggest hubs: Iowa. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Whirlpool's hub states run: Iowa, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.