New York
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The US has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs over the last year. Beverly Dawson’s family was among them.
Dawson was laid off this month at Whirlpool’s refrigerator factory in Amana, a small town in eastern Iowa. Her son’s offer to work full-time at the plant when he graduates from college in a few semesters was also pulled. Her husband was the only one to survive the latest round of layoffs.
At the Amana plant, the hope of a stable future building appliances in the town that introduced America’s first side-by-side refrigerator is dimming. The factory’s workforce has been cut by more than half over the last few years as Whirlpool expands production in Mexico.
“You have generations working at the Amana plant. People’s parents and grandparents,” Dawson, 48, said. “It’s a central part of the community and was a good, solid place to work.”
Dawson is one of more than 100,000 American manufacturing workers who have lost their jobs since President Donald Trump entered office last year. Trump as a candidate promised a “manufacturing boom” and once in office launched broad global tariffs as the way to revitalize factory production in the United States.
Despite the administration’s push, the decades-long decline in manufacturing has marched on. The US economy has shed more than 7.5 million manufacturing jobs since a peak in 1979, driven by global competition, automation and exchange rates.
Whirlpool has opened four factories in Mexico to build refrigerators in recent years, said the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace (IAM), which represents workers at the Amana plant.
IAM opposes Trump’s broad tariffs, fearing they would disrupt US production and cause layoffs.
“Whirlpool advertised quite often that they’re the only American manufacturer of refrigerators and tariffs will only be beneficial,” Dawson said. “I don’t understand how that reconciles with opening up more in Mexico.”
Whirlpool, which also owns the KitchenAid, Maytag and Amana brands, supports Trump’s tariffs.
The Michigan-based company has said the import taxes give it an advantage. That’s because most of the appliances it sells in the United States are produced domestically at 10 US plants, in contrast to its rivals in Asia like LG and Samsung.
The administration’s “trade policies are critical to closing trade loopholes and leveling the playing field for Whirlpool and other US manufacturers,” Whirlpool spokesperson Chad Parks said in a statement to CNN.
Whirlpool said it’s making “difficult but necessary changes” to the plant in Amana “all with the goal of keeping Amana competitive and a viable manufacturing presence in the community for the long term.”
But the pull to produce in lower-cost countries like China and Mexico remains strong for all US manufacturers. The power of tariffs has not been enough to make US manufacturing competitive with these countries. Trump’s snap decisions on tariff rates have also chilled companies’ long-term investment and hiring plans. (The White House did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.)
Meanwhile, tariffs have hiked costs. For example, Trump’s 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum increased Whirlpool’s costs by $300 million last year. The company also paid more for appliance components that are only made overseas.
“Supply chains are integrated across countries. They can’t be changed overnight,” said Susan Houseman, an economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. “To think companies can turn on a dime and rearrange supply chains or make massive investments in this country is unrealistic.”
Big-ticket refrigerators and dishwashers are also going untouched at stores as fewer people move or buy new homes. Whirlpool’s sales dropped 6.5% last year and its stock declined around 35%.
Tariffs have “done little to benefit” the home appliance sector, said Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University.
Since Trump took office last year, the tariff rate on major home appliances has increased from 5% to 16.4% in December. That rate isn’t high enough for domestic manufactures to benefit, especially when steel and aluminum prices have spiked, Miller said.
“Production didn’t increase in 2025 and payrolls fell,” he said.
Whirlpool’s pledge to keep jobs in Amana rings hollow to laid off workers like Dawson. When she goes into a nearby Lowe’s, she’s frustrated to see Whirlpool refrigerators made in Mexico and China.
There is a long history of building home appliances in Amana, one of seven villages outside Cedar Rapids that were German communal societies until the Great Depression.
In 1934, Amana entrepreneur George Foerstner began making beer coolers. The business grew into the Amana household appliances’ brand — the first side-by-side fridge in the United States was introduced there in 1949 and the first bottom-freezer fridge came in 1957. Hollywood stars like Gary Cooper and Groucho Marx advertised Amana’s appliances in magazines and on the radio.
Raytheon, the inventor of the microwave oven, bought Amana a decade later as it pushed to bring microwaves to households around the country.
Whirlpool eventually acquired the plant in 2006, which is still an economic engine for the area and processes wastewater for the local community. Roughly 950 people work there.
The factory has had a “wide-reaching benefit for people around Amana,” said Sandy Freytag, who has worked there for more than 30 years. She worries that the layoffs will have a spillover effect on local businesses and the economy.
“People don’t trust that the factory will stay open,” she said. “I hope I am very wrong.”
Dawson had hoped to work there for the rest of her career, but the 48-year-old mother of four is now sending out job applications to dozens of employers.
She’s currently competing in a tough labor market with a weaker safety net. Iowa in 2022 cut its unemployment insurance from 26 weeks to 16, and a federal program for workers who lost their jobs due to foreign trade has expired.
Her husband has taken on a second job and is now working seven days a week to help the family make ends meet. If she can’t find a new job soon, she plans to tap into her retirement savings.
“I’ve worked hard. I’ve been loyal. I’ve made things better, and that still isn’t enough for me to be successful,” she said.
