UAW John Deere workers vote to allow strike

John Deere workers are fed up. In the midst of stalled contract negotiations, Jacobin reports that UAW workers in three states voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. If that goes, John Deere could be screwed up.

The strike was voted after renegotiations of a six-year contract stopped earlier this month. The old contract was not very popular, as it barely passed in the last vote. He only really crossed the threshold of 200 votes because of the ratification bonuses:

The latest contract in 2015 was passed very closely, with fewer than 200 votes out of 10,000 eligible voters, who traded in rising health care costs for a small pay hike.

Deere’s largest local, Waterloo Local 838, rejected the deal 2 to 1; Ottumwa Local 74 also refused. However, hundreds of laid-off workers were allowed to vote and with a ratification bonus of $ 3,500, many of them, unsure of having a job to return to, accepted the deal.

The strike couldn’t come at a worse time for John Deere management. With $ 1.6 billion in third-quarter profits, the company is reporting higher numbers than ever. If the strike continues, workers will lay down their tools in the first half of October, and with the harvest season underway, this could spell the end of the business and potentially have a bigger ripple effect in the industry. whole agricultural industry. UAW workers rightly argue that they must share the record profits. A former local UAW president said the company understands it needs to do the right thing for workers.

John Deere workers “share one thing in common: everyone knows Deere owes us a better deal. Everyone knows that Deere is going to have to invest if they want to create a viable workforce to generate profits for shareholders, which is their main interest. “

It’s finish 30 years ever since John Deere went on strike. Lasting five months, it cost the company $ 100 million. Workers say they just want to support themselves and their families. Just believe a local UAW president said:

We are making these shareholders billions of dollars as we fight for peanuts. Fighting just to keep our health insurance, the same health insurance we relied on when we worked six days a week for ten to twelve hours a day most weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.

Negotiations are still ongoing.