Laid off from Winnebago Industries.

What Winnebago Industries layoffs have meant for employees

Winnebago's closings read like relocations in its statements and like layoffs on Iowa's list, and both descriptions have held at once. When it folded Waverly and Charles City into other plants in 2025, it told Business Record that roles would be relocated, while the state's data counted the same closings as layoffs. The transfer wording has varied, from Lake Mills roles offered "where possible" in 2024 to every affected Lake Mills worker reportedly offered a Forest City role in 2026. A moved role is still a job somewhere else. If you're offered one, the commute, the schedule, the pay and what happens if you decline are all yours to weigh. No count of who took a transfer at any of these plants is on record, so the layoff totals can't show how many people ended up out of work.

Lake Mills shows how fast a receiving plant's standing changed. In July 2024 Winnebago handed it the Charles City vans and called it a "manufacturing center of excellence," KCRG reported. In July 2025 it was one of the plants set to absorb Waverly and Charles City. By August 2026 the company was planning to close it and sell it, RV News reported. The same plant went from center of excellence to the for-sale list, which is worth having in mind if you've already moved once and you're being offered a second move.

Forest City was the destination when Charles City closed in 2008, for part of Hampton's work in 2009 and for Junction City in 2019, and under the 2026 plan it takes Lake Mills' vans too. Taking in work hasn't kept it off the state's list. Its two 2026 notices, per our WARN tracker, cover 78 jobs, and KIOW relayed the Des Moines Register's report that October's are in specialty vehicles, the business that builds mobile clinics and command centers, per the fiscal 2026 10-K. If you've been offered a Forest City role, the plant sits about 20 miles from Lake Mills, and it may make sense to treat the role as one option and keep a job search going beside it.

Grand Design and Newmar, both Winnebago Industries brands per that filing, cut staff at their Indiana plants in 2023 and 2024. The 2026 plan brings plant moves to Indiana too, with Winnebago's towable work going onto the Grand Design campus in Middlebury, and the 10-K also marks a leased Elkhart site for closing in fiscal 2027.

Year-end headcount, the figure in filings like the fiscal 2024 10-K, is a different measure from a notice. It's a net figure that rolls in hiring and people who left on their own, so the recent drop can't be built up from these layoffs or read as a count of them. The fiscal 2009 10-K gives the same kind of snapshot for an earlier stretch, about 3,310 people at the end of fiscal 2007, 2,250 a year later and 1,630 at the end of fiscal 2009, the year all employees took two mandatory unpaid weeks.

Dates on these notices don't always mean one day for a plant. Charles City's 2025 closing carried September 8 for some people and December 12 for others, so a date in a news story may not be yours. If terms for a package or a transfer reach you in writing, a dated copy is worth keeping with your records. If your job was in Iowa, Iowa unemployment benefits covers what a claim there involves, and layoffs in Iowa shows which other employers have filed there. The same state pages exist for Indiana and Oregon.

A sourced history of Winnebago Industries layoffs

• October 2026, Forest City notice for 51 jobs

  The notice, filed October 9, gave November 9 as the layoff date, and the state lists it as a mass layoff. The Des Moines Register placed the cuts in the specialty vehicles operation, KIOW reported.

• August 2026, Lake Mills and Middlebury closings announced

  Winnebago said it would close Lake Mills and its Towables campus in Middlebury, Indiana, moving that work to Forest City and a Grand Design plant. A spokesman put Lake Mills at 66 affected, all reportedly offered Forest City roles, RV News reported. KIOW said a separate notice listed 27 at Forest City for November 30.

• July 2025, Waverly and Charles City closings

  The motorhome division said it would fold both sites into Forest City and Lake Mills, relocating roles there. State data listed 77 layoffs in Waverly and 18 in Charles City for September 8, then 26 in Charles City for December 12, Business Record reported.

• May 2025, 196 jobs at four Iowa plants

  Forest City lost 128, Lake Mills 30, Charles City 20 and Waverly 18, effective June 13, Business Record reported.

• October 2024, Forest City cuts

  Winnebago told KIOW it had eliminated "several roles" across the Winnebago brand. The state listed as many as 33 people for November 22.

• July 2024, Charles City Assembly cuts and production move

  Winnebago said it would move Class B vans to Lake Mills, which it called a "manufacturing center of excellence," and eliminate about 36 positions, with a September 1 layoff date, KCRG reported. Lake Mills roles were offered "where possible."

• April 2024, Newmar cuts in Nappanee, Indiana

  Newmar eliminated "a select number of roles" at its Nappanee campus, citing customer demand and dealer inventory, and said it was assisting those affected, ABC 57 reported.

• July 2023, Grand Design RV lays off 170

  Grand Design, near Middlebury, Indiana, cited soft consumer spending, WNDU reported. The company still employed about 2,200.

• February 2019, Junction City, Oregon, closing

  Winnebago said it would move its diesel motorhome work to Forest City, cutting 220 jobs and keeping a 30-person service operation, RV PRO reported from The Register-Guard. The notice, per our WARN tracker, ran closing phases from April 5 to June 14.

• 2008 and 2009, Charles City and Hampton closings

  Winnebago moved Charles City's Class C work to Forest City in fiscal 2008. In June 2009 it said it would close its Hampton fiberglass plant, sending part of the work to Forest City and outsourcing the rest, its fiscal 2009 10-K says.

What to do if you're laid off from Winnebago Industries

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Winnebago Industries's biggest hubs: Iowa, Indiana, Oregon. 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 Winnebago Industries's hub states run: Iowa, Indiana, Oregon, 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.