Assembly workers at Maytag’s Jackson Dishwashing Products plant walked off the job Thursday morning.
Not to shut down the company, but to honor it.
Line workers, managers and corporate officials joined together at 11:15 a.m. to stop production for just over an hour Thursday to receive accolades of achievement from IndustryWeek magazine as one of the nation’s 10 best production plants.
Denise Mays installs heater elements, washer arms and other parts into Maytag’s dishwashers. The 29-year-old Trenton native works in the plant’s ”sunshine” section, the start of the assembly line.
”I’m proud of this award, because we worked hard to make it happen,” she said. ”Especially when I see (a dishwasher) at the end of the (assembly line) and know I started the work on it.”
More than 400 plants were nominated for the award that is given to plants excelling in several areas, including: plant performance, application of new technologies, productivity, environmental and safety performances and competitiveness.
The Jackson plant is the lone producer of Newton, Iowa-based Maytag dishwashing products. Workers at the 557,000-square-foot production facility have manufactured more than 9 million dishwashers since its 1992 inception. The plant manufactures the Maytag, Amana, Magic Chef and Jeen-Air brand dishwashers.