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Plastic Refrigerators Threaten Magnet Industry
Added December 2007
Belgium, Ireland - -
 Two years ago Maytag introduced the new Plastech Refrigerator line that supposedly kept cooler and was more efficient that nearly any refrigerator on the market – all at a lower price because of the reduction in metal replaced with plastic. Most consumers hailed the new devices, buying them in droves making the new Plastech Plastic Refrigerator line the number one selling fridge in the country. But, this has had an unexpected drawback.
The new fridges front covers were not made of metal, and therefore magnets do not stick to them. For the most part, consumers have just dealt with the problem, no longer posting memorable pictures of their children and pets. “I really didn’t notice at first,” says homemaker Jean Manitoba, “Then my father died. And I had no place to put a picture of him.”
The resentment began to spread across the country, as the new Plastech’s grew more popular, magnet sales actually began to decline. The entire magnet industry suffered huge losses and cutbacks in 2007 that lead to massive protests in Oakland and Calgary.
 President Bush visited the recently cut workers, inviting them to a pizza party where he suggested that they seek work in other industry’s, such as the budding adhesive-pin industry. Many scoffed at this notion, and an overweight local man has begun making a documentary trying to meet Maytag’s chairman to ask him why he won’t make metal refrigerators anymore. The situation is grim. Whirlpool Corporation, the company that owns Maytag, has since pledged to produce equal numbers of metal and plastic refrigerators so as to not adversely affect the magnet economy.
But, the United Magnet Union Workers (UMUW), is still not satisfied. Union chief, Michael Bonestrings, complained that the corporations were “not sensitive to the needs of the American worker,” and that magnets are a “crucial part of our economy.” They have taken the job cuts very harshly, as losses cut deeper and deeper every month. Just last year alone, three people were laid off from Oakland’s largest plant, sending shockwaves throughout the thirty-eight employees who worked there.
Meanwhile, the plastic refrigerators continue to fly off the shelves, taking away the main viewing area for magnets in the home. Analysts have said that there is room for the industry to diversify into the locker and bumper-sticker markets, but most of their revenues will be cut off if their refrigerator-magnet sales dry up.
- Stogiebros.com
2007
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