Maytag begins Searcy layoffs: Company officials mum on numbers

[UpInArms]

http://www.thedailycitizen.com/articles/2004/06/12/news/news01.txt

Both salaried employees and temporary production workers have lost their jobs at Maytag's Searcy plant, but company officials are remaining tight-lipped about it. The firings come as Maytag faces a barrage of bad financial news, a strike at one of its plants and a stinging critique issued by the nation's largest retirement fund.

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Company spokesperson Lynn Dragomier said Thursday that "a few" salaried workers in Searcy would lose their jobs as part of a nationwide corporate restructuring plan. On Friday she said that additionally "some adjustments are being made in production schedules that will affect temporarily temporary workers."

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But an as yet undetermined number of workers who showed up for work at both the morning and evening shifts Thursday were directed to a break room, where they were told they no longer had work at the factory and were sent home, The Daily Citizen has learned.

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The restructuring plan was announced last Friday in response to a 22 percent drop in revenue for Maytag's Hoover line of appliances.

The company fired nearly 20 percent of its salaried workforce, or 1,100 of 5,800 salaried employees. The bulk of the layoffs were made at the Hoover plant in North Canton, Ohio and at corporate headquarters in Newton, Iowa.

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