Members of the United Steelworkers (USW) and the IUE-CWA today demanded answers from Whirlpool executives who seem more interested in lining their pockets with huge benefit packages than investing in American workers and communities.

The workers questioned Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig and the board of directors at the appliance company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Chicago about closing two refrigerator plants, in Arkansas and Indiana, over the past two years, while giving their top five executives more than $75 million in so-called “golden coffin” commitments. “Golden coffins” are payments made to an executive’s family after his or her death.

“We wanted to ask them, face to face, why they turned their back on us, after we worked so hard to help the plant stay in business,” said USW Local 370 President Rick Nemeth, who works at the company’s Fort Smith, Ark., factory. Whirlpool announced last fall that it would close the plant later this year and move production to Mexico ... more