A sad day in Newton------

[gyrafoam]

The last of the Maytag operation in Newton, Iowa will shut down today. There are a few new business to take it's place, however it will leave a void in Newton forever. The townsfolk have a great spirit about them and most have already found other employment.

Good Morning America (ABC) ran a wonderful story on this event this morning at about 7:15AM. You may be able to go to their web-site and watch it yourselves.

It kind of hits me like the loss of Frigidaire back in 1980. I just assumed they would always be there.
Just can't take things for granted in this world because tomorrow they may be gone forever.

 

[tolivac]

This is also like the loss of the Canton,Ohio Hoover factory.Sad days for both vacuum and washer fans.

 

[abcomatic]

This is also like the end of M.P.Moller pipe organ company of Hagerstown, MA. It was the largest maker of pipe organs in the world. Gary

 

[goatfarmer]

CBS Sunday morning last weekend did a nice piece on Newton, and Maytag.

 

[alexb1186]

i pulled this up from the Des Moines register

I can't help but feel sad for these people. It's just like Hoover, these people put in decades of service and were essentially family to each other. I can't really tell who fucked over who but all I know is in this heat of the moment I feel like taking a road trip to Benton Harbor and sticking some lit dynamite up some corporate ass.

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m.dmregister.com

 

[selectomatic]

As Pogo said, We have met the enemy, and they is us.

As long as American consumers demand more and more stuff for less and less money (and work), the result will be that American plants will close down, and products from China (or whatever country has a cheap, readily-exploitable workforce) will replace the quality merchandise we all wish for.

It's not good. It's not healthy. I try to avoid buying into it.

But it's our future. For a little while, at least. It can't last forever, but what will come next isn't going to be good, I fear.

-kevin

 

[tolivac]

Wasn't the former Moller organ factory bought up by former Moller employees-and now operated under the "Hagerstown organ" company?A Fairchild aircraft factory was just down the street from Moller that produced the A-10 "tank killer" plane used today.Don't know if the Fairchild plane facory is still operating.I have a set of books-about theater organs-and Moller used to build them.In one of the volumes has an article on the Moller factory-and pictures of it.It even had its own sawmill!could produce organs from rough cut logs!They produced their own lumber since lumber from other suppliers didn't meet Mollers standards.

 

[bongobro]

Anyone for a Benton Harbor road trip?

When I bought my Maytag Performa TL in 2002, I thought I was gettin' away from Whirlpool (the two previous machines we had were a '79 Kenmore and a '93 Whirlpool, the latter I won in a Tide contest)...

Truth is I had wanted to get the "Dependable Care" model (the old Maytag mechanicals albeit updated), but even the Maytag salesman said the Performa was "just as good" as the DC.

No fuc*in' way! In five years, the Performa seems almost as worn-out as the machine it's replaced--and, in an even greater irony, the store from which I bought the Maytag itself has gone out of business--it went down about two months ago...

Perhaps the word is gettin' 'round and the Whirltags are gonna go down, too...too late to do much about those poor guys and gals in Newton, however...