Way of life expires with Maytag plant

Capital Times ^ | 5-31-06 | Dave Zweifel

[nonliberal]

The plant was shut down because the company could get non-union labor in Ohio and Iowa has the worst corporate environment in the midwest.

Score one more for the goonions!!

[Hydroshock]

My grand parents had a maytag washer and dryer made in 1965, both lasted 27 years. I wish I could find new ones of those modles in storage somewhere.

[Vote 4 Nixon]

Man your really preaching to the choir today with that one. Management here at the Propex plant here in Hazlehurst have damn near put us out of business. Going out and spending 100,000.00 on new company automobiles spending God knows how much money on new "Safety" upgrades on top of which being so ignorant of how to make money that when our company recently bought out our largest competitor they did what was called a reverse acquisition and the company we supposedly bought out actually took over us. Idiotic management have lost sight of how to make money the old fashioned way. But what the hell?? at least the floors are swept and no spookey buggerman can sneak into the place and massacre us all. God help us. Sorry I had to vent.

[Moonman62]

I've been a supplier to Maytag for 20 years and am acquainted with their history. btw, their newest product, the Neptune washer, was a flop.

Last night I read on the insurance thread that somebody's Neptune washer caught fire, and it ended up getting their policy canceled.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Maytag spent millions developing the Neptune. But they never asked themselves the central question: Does the American family want or need a high priced washing machine ?
One of my contacts in purchasing said it was an open secret that they would never, ever recover their development costs.
Years ago, Maytag's Hoover vacuum cleaner ran a promotion in the UK offering the buyer of a new sweeper a discount coupon for a Paris holiday. Someone neglected to read the promo because "discount coupon" was left out of the offer. A UK judge interpreted the offer to mean a free vacation with every sweeper. Hundreds took advantage of the oversight before the offer was canceled.

[newgeezer]

On one hand the city leaders are responsible for this situation. On the other Maytag managment and labor drove the company into the ground. Shame.

One reason for Maytag's demise is the Neptune washers. As I understand it, they were rushed to market, and the subsequent recall(s) to fix the problem(s) nearly broke the company.

[annie laurie]

The founders of these once-great companies were true businessmen who cared about quality. Nowadays these companies are mostly cash cows for CEOs who use them to line their golden parachutes with. But I still have hope. If enough people get fed up with cheap junk, consumer demand will make them either go out of business or force them to start making quality products again. I hate to say this, but American manufactureres could take a lesson from the way the Japanese do things. For the Japenese, quality is still Job 1.

As much as I hate to admit it, your entire post is spot on.

[iowamark]

Note that what has not been mentioned here is the UAW union.

This article by the extreme leftist Madison Capital Times claims the Newton closure was due to the “latest corporate merger.” Rather it was huge losses year after year that made the Maytag company sale necessary and it was the United Auto Workers culture that made the Newton factory unprofitable.

Everything the UAW touches turns to overpriced junk. Sure they got the wage rates pushed up ridiculously high. But they also made the company impossible to run profitably.

No mass market product can be profitably assembled by 50 dollar an hour (wage+benefits) union slugs specifically trained by their union to do as very little work as possible.

Newton will survive due to its’ proximity to Des Moines. But it won’t profit by continuing to follow the UAW.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The UAW can add Maytag's scalp to its lodgepole, along with Massey Furgeson, J.I. Case, Minneapolis-Moline, White Tractor, etc. On the whole, it was really poor management (the Neptune and the stupid ventures outside their core market) that killed the company.