Electrolux Closing 2 Iowa Plants, 850 Jobs Lost
DES MOINES, Iowa — Appliance maker Electrolux announced Friday that it would come two Iowa plants by spring 2011, putting 850 people out of work as operations are moved to Mexico.
Electrolux Major Appliances North America said it would finish the Webster City plant by early 2011 and a smaller facility in Jefferson by late 2010.
The Webster Bishopric plant employs about 880 people and produces top-loading washing machines. About 50 people occupation in Jefferson, a plant about 50 miles southwest from Webster City that builds components for the washing machines.
The proprietorship says about 75 jobs will remain at a technology center in Iowa.
"This is a very difficult decision, and certainly a last repair to," Electrolux spokeswoman Blythe Reiss said.
The moves come amid a drop in U.S. and global coveted, Reiss said.
The company is consolidating its North American laundry manufacturing at a plant in Juarez, Mexico, that opened last year, Reiss said. That imprint now has about 330 employees.
Source: The Associated Press
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