Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

John Deere Workers Hold the Line and Vote Down Second Contract Offer

UAW members at John Deere rejected the latest contract offer from the bosses, holding out for the wages and benefits they’ve been demanding from the beginning of their walkout. It’s time for the entire labor movement to rally in solidarity with this strike as it continues.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

November 2, 2021
Facebook Twitter Share
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Striking John Deere employees rejected a second contract offer on Tuesday. After decades of austerity contracts with cuts to pensions, healthcare, and wages, workers at the farm equipment manufacturer — members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) — are standing up and demanding more, just as the t-shirts they’ve been wearing on the picket lines put it: “Deemed essential in 2020. Prove it in 2021.” 

This strike is proving it. 

UAW members across Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas voted down the tentative agreement, 55 percent to 45 percent. This is a much closer vote margin than when 90 percent of union members voted down the previous contract offer in early October, which set the stage for the strike that began on October 14. 

With 10,000 workers out, the John Deere strike is the biggest of the #Striketober labor movement. The workers have stood strong despite court injunctions to break up their picket lines and the company’s use of managers as scabs. 

As one worker said about this latest contract offer, “This time they actually offered something.” John Deere offered to double the immediate wage increase, increase retirement benefits, and maintain pensions for any worker hired after the contract is signed.   

But the workers won’t accept scraps anymore — and these are scraps. A key issue for workers was healthcare after retirement, which this latest contract offer did not provide. Further, the wage increases, while significantly more than in the initial proposal, were still meager. As Our Quad Cities, an Altoona, Iowa news outlet reported, the proposal was for wages to increase by 10 percent in the first year and then by 5 percent every other year, with lump sum payments of 3 percent every year in between. Compare that to the whopping 160 percent raise that John Deere’s CEO got from 2020 to 2021. Finally, the two-tier system would remain in place for workers hired after 1997, who would not get the full pension afforded to Tier 1 employees. 

The workers know that John Deere owes them much more. In August, the company made profits of between $5.7 and $5.9 billion — at least 62 percent more than in 2013.

As one Waterloo, Iowa unionist explains, the workers deserve full pensions and  benefits at retirement — nothing less. 

The dollar figures show that it’s just not true when Deere claims this wage increase is the best the company can do. The workers deserve more and, with their vote on the tentative agreement, are showing their willingness to keep fighting for it. Without a doubt, the bosses will try to punish these workers for demanding more. Our solidarity from around the country is more essential than ever. 

Hold the line. Solidarity with John Deere workers on strike!

Facebook Twitter Share

Tatiana Cozzarelli

Tatiana is a former middle school teacher and current Urban Education PhD student at CUNY.

United States

Image by the Economist, Satoshi Kimbayashi

The Debt Ceiling Agreement is an Attack on the Working Class and on the Planet

Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy’s deal to raise the debt ceiling is a handout to the military industrial complex and an attack on the working class and the planet. Rather than just raising the debt ceiling, a relatively standard practice that allows the U.S. to pay the bills for spending that already happened, this debt ceiling deal caps discretionary spending on everything but “defense” and fast-tracks the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Federal Charges of Political Activists Show the Racist and Repressive Nature of the Capitalist State

Black nationalist organizations in the United States have been the target of what is a clear, politically motivated attack by the FBI in an attempt to silence voices of dissent against the U.S. government.

Tristan Taylor

May 17, 2023

Biden Agrees with Trump on Immigration

With the end of Title 42, Biden has put in place even more restrictive measures against migrants seeking asylum in the United States. As refugee crises get more extreme, so will the state’s anti-migrant policies.

Sam Carliner

May 12, 2023

Police Violently Repress Protesters while Jordan Neely’s Murderer Walks Free

On Monday, NYPD officers brutalized people gathered at a vigil for Jordan Neely, who was murdered last week in the subway by a vigilante.

Molly Rosenzweig

May 11, 2023

MOST RECENT

Image in The Stand

SCOTUS v. Labor Movement: The Court Rules Against Workers

The Supreme Court issued a ruling which aims to weaken strikes. It is no coincidence that this comes at a time when unions have massive support among the general population. The labor movement must fight back against the state's attacks on our collective power.

Luigi Morris

June 3, 2023

This Pride Month, There is Hope In Fighting Back. Pride is in the Streets.

Pride is in the streets. It is the history of our community, it is the history of our struggle. Let us do them honor.

Ezra Brain

June 2, 2023
A rainbow display at the supermarket Target during Pride Month 2022.

Target Doesn’t Care about LGBTQ+ People

At Target and Anheuser-Busch, policies of inclusion and diversity have clashed with profit ambitions.

Pablo Herón

June 2, 2023
University of Michigan campus

Campus Cops Intimidate Grad Workers in Ann Arbor, Michigan

We publish here a statement by the Graduate Employees' Organization detailing and condemning the repressive tactics of the University of Michigan administration in response to the strength and resilience of striking grad workers.

Left Voice

June 1, 2023