Whirlpool Inc. is moving a production line for ice makers for refrigerators from its plant in Fort Smith to China.
The Fort Smith ice maker line employs about 80 people, said Larry Ryan, president of the union chapter at the plant.
The company announced in November that some production at the Fort Smith plant would move to Mexico, but said it didn’t yet know how many jobs would be affected.
The ice makers are installed in the freezers of Whirlpool refrigerators and also are sold to Whirlpool competitors. A firm will design and produce the units in China.
Whirlpool spokesman Christopher Wyse said the move was nothing more than “a normal course of business. I can’t stress that enough.”
Wyse said there will be no production change on the Fort Smith ice maker line for at least a year. He said the company was working with the outsource firm, TTi, to produce ice makers for the company’s planned new refrigerator models.
Wyse said he does not expect layoffs because workers on the ice maker line will fill other positions in the plant vacated through normal attrition.
However, Ryan said the move will reduce the hiring Whirlpool does in the community. The Fort Smith plant has about 4,500 employees, the largest manufacturing employer in the region.
Whirlpool had more than $11 billion in 2002 sales. The Benton Harbor, Mich.-based company is the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of home appliances. It employs 68,000 people in more than 170 countries.
From The Miami Herald