Bye-Bye Rubbermaid

525 Iowa Jobs Lost

About 525 workers at the Newell Rubbermaid Inc. plant in Centerville will lose their jobs when the company closes the plant after 21 years of operation.

Workers were told Wednesday evening that the plant would close Sept. 15 and production would be moved to Winfield, Kan. Workers make Rubbermaid brand garden sheds, outdoor storage units and garbage containers for the Atlanta-based manufacturer.

The company announced in September a three-year plan to streamline manufacturing and cut overhead including 5,000 jobs. The company has about 31,000 employees worldwide. Company officials announced in January that they would close a plant in Canton, Ohio, and announced in July the closure of a factory in Goodyear, Ariz.
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The 500,000-square-foot Rubbermaid factory drew employees from a wide area of southern Iowa and northern Missouri. Sherman said the employment at the plant represents about 30
percent of manufacturing labor in Appanoose County. Centerville, the largest city in the county, has a population of 5,924. It is located 70 miles southeast of Des Moines in a rural region of southern Iowa that has traditionally relied heavily on manufacturing for its economic base, but has seen many plant closures and layoffs in recent years.

Iowa offered Rubbermaid a million dollars to help with expansion in Centerville. State officials say they're frustrated that last year, Rubbermaid refused what would have been a million dollar tax break.

The Iowa Department of Economic Development says Rubbermaid came to IDED last summer with plans for a $10 million expansion in Centerville. Rubbermaid applied for and received a one million dollar tax break to follow through on that expansion. But IDED says there was a change in Rubbermaid management, and communication was lost. IDED says it and the Governor's office sent letters to Rubbermaid executives, trying to court the company.

Tina Hoffman from IDED, says Rubbermaid refused to respond. "Well, it's frustrating to have the tools available to know that we have the workforce in place that's trained and very productive and frustrating to not have the opportunity to really convey the advantages."

IDED says the money for Rubbermaid's tax incentive would have come from the Iowa Values fund.