Whirlpool Corp. has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to cut the medical benefits of thousands of retired Maytag workers.

The lawsuit, dated July 24 and filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Des Moines as a class action complaint, names the international and local chapters of the United Auto Workers union and three retired Maytag workers as representatives of the class.

Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool said it provides benefits to about 3,000 retired Maytag workers, surviving spouses and dependents.

Whirlpool bought rival Maytag in 2006 for $1.7 billion and assumed the negotiated union contracts and related benefit plans. Whirlpool closed the Maytag corporate headquarters in Newton and a laundry equipment factory in the town of about 15,000 located 30 miles east of Des Moines. About 1,800 workers lost their jobs.

Whirlpool said in the lawsuit that a contract negotiated between the union and Maytag in 2004 expires on July 31. Whirlpool said it plans to change the retiree medical benefits on Jan. 1, 2009, to bring the benefits in line with the same plan that more than 10,000 current employees, retirees and their dependents have.

Company spokeswoman Monica Teague said Tuesday the company will not discuss benefit changes until the workers are first informed. She said letters are going out to the retirees.

"We are working to harmonize our benefits packages offering a contemporary and competitive benefits package," she said.

The company said in court documents that on July 1 during a collective bargaining negotiating session, it proposed modifying retirees' medical benefits and the union refused to discuss the issue. The union claimed the company could not modify the retirees' medical benefits, the lawsuit said.

The UAW did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Lyle E. Ettelson Jr., 50, one of the retirees named in the lawsuit said he had been told nothing about the lawsuit and wasn't aware that he was one of the named defendants until after it had been filed and people started calling him.

He said he was one of the last Maytag workers to leave when Whirlpool shut down the Newton factory.

He retired in March, he said.

Ettelson said he doesn't know how much of a cut in health care benefits he faces under Whirlpool's proposed changes.

In court documents, Whirlpool said the union has aggressively fought efforts by other companies to change retiree benefits claiming they violate collective bargaining agreements.

Whirlpool asked the court to declare the benefits expired on July 31 and that the company has the right to change the medical benefits on Jan. 1, 2009.