Maytag made bullet proof laundry equipment in the 50s through the mid 1980s. Then they bet the farm on a new design which was a copy of a Korean front loader and it flopped.
Their factory in Newton Iowa was UAW organized and there was a hateful relationship between the management and employees, mainly because management kept doing stupid things over and over. When Maytag stumbled, the union's attitude was “not my problem.”
The jobs are all gone now.
btw, the electric motor in the ringer was specially made for Maytag by GE. It was designed to handle varying electric current. In many far off locales, IE; rural Philippines, the power was 50-55 cycles. In post war Japan, it was worse, but the old ringers could handle it.
Damned unions and poor management is a bad combination.
My aunt lived her ringers. She must have gotten one of the last of the ringers in 1985 or so.