Whirlpool Plant’s Last Day: June 29

Whirlpool Corp. confirmed in a letter that its refrigerator manufacturing plant in Fort Smith will close June 29, immediately eliminating about 834 jobs but cutting a total of roughly 944 by the end of the summer.

(Click here to view the letter to Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders.)

Whirlpool, which is headquartered in Benton Harbor, Mich., announced last October that it would close the lone Arkansas plant in 2012.

Chuck Knapp, director of human resources at the Fort Smith plant, stated as follows in the April 25 letter to Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders:

"Whirpool Corporation’s Fort Smith Division will close its entire Fort Smith, Arkansas manufacturing plant and physical distribution center effective June 29, 2012, as previously announced. At the present time, we expect that the closure will result in the release of an estimated 826 hourly and 8 salaried employees June 29, 2012. An additional estimated 77 salaried will be laid off July 6, 2012, 27 hourly employees will be laid off by July 31, 2012, and all remaining (estimated to be 6) hourly employees will be laid off by August 31."

Knapp did not immediately return a call seeking comment.