One worry was that postponing a walkout would give Deere more time to build up inventory, weakening the workers’ leverage.
“What is the union’s definition of provoked? Can we get shirts saying ‘Will back down if threatened?’” “What happened to all the ‘Will strike if provoked’ BS?,” commented a member on one local’s Facebook post. Members took their outrage to social media. Some felt an extension signalled the union backing off of its strike threat. Any updates or changes to the status of the negotiations will be communicated through our local unions.” The union website had little detail-just a two-sentence post that read: “The UAW and John Deere have agreed to extend the current collective bargaining agreement as the parties continue to make progress towards reaching a tentative agreement. Good progress has been made but they are still talking. that night, Local 281 in Davenport, Iowa, posted on its Facebook page: “We’ve been notified by the bargaining team we are on an extension. It came as a shock to at least some members when, at 12:01 a.m. At the Ottumwa, Iowa, plant, management had cancelled third shift and emptied perishables out of the vending machines. Locals had assigned picket duties and arranged for carpools for different shifts. Many expected to be walking a picket line when the clock struck midnight on October 1. ELEVENTH-HOUR EXTENSIONĪ week earlier, members had counted down the hours to contract expiration. That’s not to mention the inferior wages and benefits while they’re still on the job.īy eliminating the pension entirely for new hires, the tentative agreement doubles down on the tier system: now, instead of two, there will be at least three tiers when it comes to retirement. The pension for anyone hired in the last quarter-century is only one-third as much as their more senior co-workers, and they don’t get retiree health care.
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The biggest one is the two-tier retirement system: Only pre-1997 hires get a full pension and health care after they retire. But the tentative agreement doesn’t repair the decades-long grievances that workers hold against Deere. Members voted 99 percent to authorize a strike.ĭeere appears to have backed down on many of these concessions at the bargaining table. The union had warned that Deere was set on ending the plant closure moratorium, doing away with overtime after eight hours, eliminating seniority-based wage progressions, and many other draconian concessions. The company’s initial offer, presented to members at their strike authorization vote meetings in September, contained a host of concessions. Instead, new hires will be enrolled in a new cash-balance plan, as well as eligible for a 401(k). But anyone hired after November 1 of this year will not be eligible for the normal pension. The list of highlights also mentions “pension and retirement improved.” That’s partly true-for current employees hired since 1997, the pension will go up (though not nearly to the top-tier pension levels). In 2022, 2024, and 2026, workers will receive 2 percent lump-sum payments instead of wage increases. These include maintaining the current premium-free health insurance plan (as opposed to going to a plan requiring them to pay 20 percent of premiums, as Deere threatened) reinstating the cost-of-living adjustment which was eliminated in the previous contract and an 11 percent raise over six years.
In the 24-page contract summary, UAW bargainers highlight what they view as the top gains. No exceptions,” emphasized one local’s Facebook page).īut it appears likely that member frustration over not being able to see the full language of changes, as well as high-profile contract rejections by UAW members at Volvo’s Virginia truck plant earlier this year, pressured the union into putting more information online.
Workers at the farm equipment manufacturer had expected to have to pick up skimpy highlights documents at their union halls starting this morning (“One highlighter per member. The tentative agreement, which covers nine locals in Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas, was initially announced last Friday, but the union revealed no details. The UAW International posted the language online last night, along with a contract summary and proposed amendments to the pension plan. Unexpectedly, they can see the language of proposed changes to their several-hundred-page contract ahead of the vote. Ten thousand Auto Workers (UAW) members at John Deere will vote on a new contract on Sunday, October 10.
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