Whirlpool transition meeting scheduled

Whirlpool and state and local officials are set to meet Friday (Nov. 4) afternoon to discuss the transition process for property and personnel.

Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool announced Oct. 27 it will cease operations at its Fort Smith refrigerator manufacturing plant, ending employment for about 1,000 hourly and salaried workers. The closure, expected by mid-2012, will mark the end of more than 45 years of Whirlpool operations in Fort Smith.

“The purpose of the meeting is to bring together all stakeholders in the transition process and to begin the process of planning for employee assistance and the marketing of the Fort Smith real estate to prospective new employers,” noted Luke Harms, senior government relations specialist with Whirlpool.

Invited to the meeting are officials with the city of Fort Smith, the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, Western Arkansas Planning & Development, the Department of Workforce Services, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

FIRST STEP
Chamber President and CEO Paul Harvel said he believes the meeting will begin to give them the info they need to prepare a property package they can then take to national site location consultants. Harvel said he believes Whirlpool will also work with a real estate firm to help sell the more than 1.2 million square foot plant. Harvel also said the chamber and AEDC will work together to place “extensive” info about the plant on the web.

“This is just a first step meeting that will be followed by many meetings,” Harvel said Thursday.

Meeting participants are also expected to discuss providing the transition for the more than 1,000 area workers soon to be displaced by the plant closing.

The loss of the about 1,000 Whirlpool jobs in Fort Smith will result in the overall statewide loss of almost 1,550 jobs and a labor income reduction of $61.15 million, according to an economic impact model prepared by Gregory Hamilton, senior research economist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, for The City Wire.

Of the 1,549.4 estimated jobs lost, 472 are indirect — Whirlpool vendors, companies that do business with Whirlpool vendors, etc. — job losses and 80 are jobs lost outside of the Fort Smith region.

ATU-OZARK ACCESS
Although not on the meeting list, Jo Blondin, chancellor of Arkansas Tech University-Ozark Campus, said the campus has historically provided education access for displaced workers in the area.

“We’ve had a great working relationship with the Department of Workforce Services and we will continue to work with them in any and every capacity and help these students and help these people get back to work,” Blondin said Thursday.

ATU-Ozark has been given approval to enroll 30 dislocated workers during the spring semester through Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a program of the U.S. Department of Labor implemented locally by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

The 30 students will be enrolled in Arkansas Tech-Ozark’s Career Pathways Initiative (CPI), a grant-funded program designed to assist low-income parents in meeting their educational and career-training goals, noted a statement from ATU-Ozark.

‘UNFORTUNATE SITUATION’
More than 400 dislocated workers have attended ATU-Ozark between 2007 and today. More than 200 were Whirlpool employees.

“This is a very unfortunate situation. We understand how this impacts laid-off workers and their families,” Ken Warden, chief business and community outreach officer, said in a statement. “As a responsive public institution, it’s our duty to help those who have lost jobs find employment through education.”
 
According to the ATU-Ozark statement, TAA can pay for up to 156 weeks worth of classes to complete a technical certificate or associate degree, as well as the costs of books. CPI can help their travel to and from classes through gas cards.
 
Warden and Kenny Beeler, chair of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (ACR) Department, are former dislocated workers who cycled through ATU-Ozark are now faculty members.
 
‘LIFE-CHANGING’
Beeler enrolled at ATU-Ozark in 2003 after Today’s Plastics in Booneville closed following a downturn in the toy and plastics industry. The closure left Beeler without a job after 18 years working at the plant.

He said landing another good job in the industry would have required moving his family to Oklahoma City. Instead, enrolled in the ATU-Ozark ACR program, eventually also joining the Skills USA team. That year he and a classmate won the Skills USA national competition.

“I was the second person in my family to ever achieve any type of college degree,” Beeler said. “The experience I received while at school has been life-changing. … When I graduated, I got a good job close to home without having to move. I was later asked if I would be interested in taking over the ACR program at the Ozark Campus. From that point to now, I’ve set and achieved goals I would’ve never set for myself had I not attended ATU-Ozark.”