Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

10,000 John Deere Workers Go On Strike

Ten thousand workers at John Deere will walk out Thursday morning after management failed to reach an agreement with union negotiators.

Olivia Wood

October 14, 2021
Facebook Twitter Share
Image by Baron's

It is just after midnight on October 14. More than 10,000 workers in Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas are now officially on strike, after the management of Deere and Co., the company behind John Deere farm equipment, failed to reach a new deal with negotiators from the United Auto Workers (UAW) after the last deal was rejected by the rank-and-file. 

Last Sunday, more than 90 percent of members voted a resounding NO on the union’s previous tentative agreement with management. Deere is anticipating 2021 profits alone to reach 150 percent of their previous highest-ever net revenue, but the original agreement offered only 11 to 12 percent raises for workers spread out over 6 years — or less than 2 percent per year.

The workers aren’t just fed up with Deere, but with the UAW leadership as well. According to the Des Moines Register, members at one local booed a representative from the UAW International and shouted at him for taking a 31-percent raise in his own salary in 2018 while the workers he represents are left with scraps. At a different union local, a worker criticized another union leader for not taking the union out on strike in September, when they originally approved a strike authorization: “‘You didn’t hear us,” she said. “Do you hear us now? Do you hear us now? How can you stand up there, on your high horse, and not hear us? This is not who we are. We deserve better.’”

The strike comes at a particularly opportune time for the workers: it’s the middle of harvest season for corn and soybeans — crops that account for more than half of all U.S. farmland — when there is a high demand for equipment and replacement parts. 

This will be the first strike against Deere since 1986, and the workers are pumped up and ready to go. “This is the first time in a decade I’ve been proud to be part of this union,” said an employee interviewed by WQAD, the ABC affiliate serving parts of Iowa and Illinois. “For our members, my brothers and sisters, because everyone is united, everyone has the same goal, and everyone is ready to fight for each other.”

Facebook Twitter Share

Olivia Wood

Olivia is a writer and editor at Left Voice and lecturer in English at the City University of New York (CUNY).

Labor Movement

Protesters in NYC for Palestinian liberation.

Uniting Workers for Palestine Is a Fight for the Future of Labor

The struggle for Palestine shows the potential for the rank and file to push unions to break with imperialism and to build a new, combative, and internationalist unionism.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

November 27, 2023
A rally with people holding signs and a banner reading "Full funding"

Student Workers Stand Up for CUNY and Palestine

Attacks on CUNY and CUNY activists are an attack on all working people and students. Workers and students united can fight back.  

Olivia Wood

November 25, 2023

The Labor Movement Is Key for Palestinian Liberation

As part of the global movement in solidarity with Palestine and against the genocidal policies of the Israeli government, labor unions are taking action and demanding a ceasefire. This is not only a welcomed addition to the movement, but a necessary one that concretely shows the power of the working class.

Tristan Taylor

November 18, 2023

Organized Student Labor Must Fight for Palestine

Newly unionized academic workers have a unique opportunity, and a duty, to support the movement for a Free Palestine.

Rose Lemlich

November 17, 2023

MOST RECENT

The World Kissinger Built Must Die Too

Henry Kissinger died at 100 years old. But his legacy remains in the brutal world system he built and the future generations of imperialist ghouls he inspired. They all must go.

Samuel Karlin

November 30, 2023

Fact Check: Did German Leftists Try to Bomb West Berlin’s Jewish Community Center in 1969?

Answer: No. The bombing was undertaken by West Germany’s domestic secret service, originally founded by Nazis.

Nathaniel Flakin

November 29, 2023
Haverford College student Kinnan Abdalhamid and Brown University students Tahseen Ahmed and Hisham Awartani, Palestinian college students who were shot in Burlington, Vermont.

Haverford Faculty for Justice in Palestine Releases Statement Supporting Pro-Palestinian Students

Haverford College Faculty for Justice in Palestine have published a statement following the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont.

A Pause in Genocide Is Not Enough: Jewish Voice for Peace Shuts Down the Manhattan Bridge

Amid a pause in Israel’s offensive on Gaza, Jewish Voice for Peace is showing that the movement for Palestine will continue. Civil disobedience must lead to broad protests which bring all sectors of the movement together.

Samuel Karlin

November 26, 2023