Oct. 10--M IDDLE AMANA -- The economic fallout has arrived in Eastern Iowa. Whirlpool Corp. on Thursday said it is laying off 440 employees -- nearly a fourth of the work force -- at its plant in Middle Amana.

Employees were told about the layoffs Thursday after they arrived for work. The plant, which manufactures refrigerators, employs about 2,000.

Whirlpool officials said demand for refrigerators has been slow and the costs of steel and oil have continued to climb.

"Not trying to be flippant, but you would have to be living under a rock to not know that market conditions are really tough right now. That's what it's really about," said Jill Saletta, director of external communications at Whirlpool's corporate headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich.

"It's not just our Amana plant. It's not just Whirlpool. We're all being affected by the unfortunate state of the economy."

Saletta said 110 of the layoffs were voluntary and the 330 non-voluntary layoffs were mostly based on seniority. The layoffs are for an indefinite period, depending on economic conditions.

Saletta said 60 employees will be laid off Monday and the balance will be furloughed Oct. 20. It would be the largest layoff at the plant since 420 were idled in May 1995.

Thursday afternoon at shift change, workers rushed to their vehicles and formed a long line to leave the plant. Two men in a pickup waved goodbye to the plant as they waited.

Employees were not surprised when the layoffs were announced. Allan Sandmeyer of Norway said rumors of layoffs have been swirling for a while.

Sandmeyer, who did not know whether he was laid furloughed about 700 workers at its Fort Smith, Ark., refrigerator manufacturing plant, citing lower demand and rising prices for raw materials.

The Whirlpool layoffs follow the loss of almost 200 jobs at Norwood Souvenir's flood-damaged plant in northwest Cedar Rapids.

Indianapolis-based Norwood decided recently not to move production from the plant to another Corridor location. It will move the product lines to a plant in Red Wing, Minn., by the end of November.

-- Contact the writers: (319) 398-8255 or erika.binegar@ gazcomm.com; (319) 398-8366 or george.ford@gazcomm.com

off when he talked with The Gazette on Thursday afternoon, was pretty sure the future of his job as an assembly worker was grim.

"It's gone," he said, adding that he's been there only about four months. "It's the economy." Sandmeyer, who sat smoking a cigarette as his earplugs dangled around his neck, said company officials told him when he was hired that there would be no layoffs. Whirlpool, which acquired the Amana plant in 2006 when it bought Maytag Corp., has laid off employees in other parts of the country as the economy has worsened. On Sept. 15, Whirlpool

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