NEWTON, Iowa - Soon the only items coming out of Newton bearing the Maytag name will be the blue cheese made famous at the farms created by the appliance giant's founding family.þþBefore October ends, the final few hundred washer-dryer assembly workers at the immense Plant 2 at Maytag Corp.'s world headquarters will clock out and get their last paychecks, shuttering an operation that had employed as many as 2,600 workers only five years ago.þþIt will be one more step in the $2.6 billion acquisition and consolidation begun last year by rival appliance-maker Whirlpool Corp., and it will sever a relationship that dominates Newton's landscape—a reflection of how tightly the town and Maytag's personal and corporate family have intersected for more than a century, since Frederick Maytag set up shop as a farm implement dealer.þþÿSomebody had a quote that losing Maytag was like the death of a parent,ÿ said Newton Mayor Chaz Allen. ÿWe're on our own now.ÿþþA community of about 16,000 people tucked into the corn-and-soybean landscape 35 miles east of Des Moines, Newton faces challenges that symbolize the effects of globalization going on throughout Iowa.þþAs in all things economic, there are winners and losers, and those who have become victims in a global economy quickly try to find ways to become winners.þþNewton is going through an economic transformation, including seeking international business investment. Surrounding farmers are benefiting from the global demand for petroleum through high corn and bean prices for agricultural-enhanced fuel. At the same time, immigrants streaming to pork-processing jobs in nearby Marshalltown have strained the region's resources and sometimes its patience.þþThose issues reveal an Iowa that might be considered more emblematic of the struggles that face the country than critics of its first-in-the-nation presidential caucus status give credit. And the presidential contenders, in their almost daily stumping across the state, note the challenges.þþþþLegislators address issuesþDuring a visit to Newton in June, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said there was ÿsomething fundamentally unjust and unfairÿ about what was happening in the community. The Democratic presidential contender noted that the economy ÿis doing very well for some ... and yet ordinary folks are struggling each and every day, paycheck to paycheck,ÿ The Des Moines Register reported.þþBut the acquisition of Maytag by Whirlpool was good for some of Obama's donors and fundraisers. Family members in Henry Crown & Co., including its chairman, Lester Crown, received more than $80 million from the sale of Maytag stock; son James Crown is Illinois finance co-chairman for Obama's campaign. More than a dozen Crown family members and employees have donated at least $128,000 to Obama's federal campaigns, including at least $32,700 to his presidential bid, campaign finance records show.þþLester Crown, who was Maytag's largest individual shareholder, stepped down after 16 years as a Maytag board member in August 2005 and noted in a statement that ÿnow that we have reached a merger agreement, I have fulfilled my obligation to the shareholders.ÿ In May 2006, about a month after the deal was completed, Whirlpool announced it was closing the major Maytag manufacturing facilities in Newton and moving the jobs to other Whirlpool plants.þþObama and his rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement. The major Democratic contenders, including former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, oppose so-called fast-tracking of trade agreements negotiated by the president and want labor and environmental protections as part of current and future trade pacts.þþWhile the Democrats' calls for retooled trade policy are appreciated by unionized workers nationally, their effects are stunted somewhat in Iowa, where only about 11 percent of the jobs are union, in a state with a 3.9 percent unemployment rate.þþOn the other side are the Republican contenders who want to maintain the president's trade negotiating authority, which expired in June, and consider free trade an essential element of expanding the economy.þþStill, the divide between the political parties is as clear as the divisions between the acres of soon-to-be-vacant manufacturing facilities on Newton's north side and a newly developing shopping area on the east side anchored by a bustling Wal-Mart Supercenter.þþÿYou'd stand on the assembly line, and it'd be brother-in-law, you, your cousin and your next-door neighbor all working right there in line,ÿ Doug Bishop said on a driving tour through Maytag Park, past the Fred Maytag swimming pool and the Fred Maytag bowl, a band shell that serves as the home of high school graduation ceremonies. ÿIt was sort of a family, an extended version, standing there side by side.ÿþþBishop was a politically active United Auto Workers business representative who worked for 71/2 years on a 4 m.p.h. dryer assembly line before being laid off. After eight months of schooling paid under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, he got a job at the Jasper County treasurer's office, was later appointed treasurer then elected.þþÿYou'd buy a Maytag, you knew it was good forever,ÿ Bishop said after a drive past Dependability Square, the road in front of Maytag's former headquarters. ÿWe're becoming a throwaway society.ÿþþþCity looks for ways to surviveþFor Newton's survival, people are looking at diversification from its old economic base, using a $10 million state fund to provide incentives to lure new business as well as a redirection of its formerly satisfied approach as an ÿislandÿ that controlled its destiny. After deriding the concept of being called a bedroom community, that is where Newton now finds itself.þþWhile its population has remained steady during the layoffs at Maytag, some of those put out of work are commuting to manufacturing jobs in Marshalltown, building windows in Pella or making adhesive products at a 3M plant in Knoxville. Some workers from Des Moines have moved to Newton to take advantage of housing prices and the community's school system. Others remain jobless, however, some surviving on their spouses' wages and health insurance as they look for work that would keep them in town.þþThe old Maytag headquarters is now the home of Iowa Telecom. Earlier this year, 30 jobs were created at a new biodiesel facility using locally grown soybeans, and the community hopes to shortly gain 700 jobs manufacturing wind-turbine blades for TPI Composites Inc. in a state that is rapidly growing its wind-energy production.þþÿWe're better off to have 10 plants at 200 jobs than one plant at 2,000 jobs,ÿ Bishop said.þþThe city also has turned to tourism with the opening a year ago of the $70 million Iowa Speedway, a 7/8-mile track just off Interstate 80. The track hosts concerts and the city is exploring related hotel development.þþBut any new jobs in Newton aren't going to pay as much as the $18 an hour earned by Maytag workers. Allen, the city's mayor, said he's hopeful that a competition for jobs will lead to increased wages.þþÿWe've got a workforce that had been the best in the world. They want that title back,ÿ Allen said. ÿI think that pride still runs through this community. Maytag quality was built by these people, and it transfers beyond the brand.ÿþþ
Source: Chicago Tribune
