Union workers for equipment manufacturer John Deere voted to approve a new contract on Wednesday, ending a strike sustained by over 10,000 workers at 14 locations for nearly five weeks.
The new agreement lasts six years, and includes a 10 percent wage increase, 5 percent raises in 2023 and 2025 and the preservation of a previous pension program that the company had originally planned on cutting for people hired after a certain date. The contract also includes a $8,500 signing bonus.
The contract was ratified with 61 percent of members voting in favor and 39 percent voting against. The strike was the largest in the country amid a wave of strikes and labor movements. One union member died during the strike after being struck and killed by a vehicle as he was walking to the picket line.
United Auto Workers (UAW) has described the agreement as “groundbreaking” and standard-setting.
“The sacrifice and solidarity displayed by our John Deere members combined with the determination of their negotiators made this accomplishment possible,” said Chuck Browning, UAW vice president. “They have started a movement for workers in this country by what was achieved here today and they have earned the admiration and respect of all that strive for what is just and equitable in the workplace.”
Union members had rejected previous contracts offering lower pay hikes and nixing pensions for new hires — provisions that one worker called “a slap in the face,” according to Labor Notes. The workers began striking in October after the company offered several inadequate contracts. Workers said that long hours, along with increased demand, had created difficult working conditions. Meanwhile, the company was reporting record earnings.
John Deere had attempted to break the strike by cutting off health care benefits for workers at the end of October. That decision was panned by labor advocates and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who called the move “beyond outrageous.”
The company claimed last week that it had “economically exhausted” its offers, which some workers questioned. “Look at what they’re paying executives,” welder Chuck Smith told the Des Moines Register. “Look at what they’re giving their CEO. It’s corporate greed.”
Other workers expressed relief over the new agreement. “I’m exhausted and nervous, but I’m proud of what was accomplished,” Illinois John Deere worker Kristin Jordan told The Washington Post.
The new contract comes as thousands of workers across the country are either preparing for a strike or actively striking. About 40,000 Kaiser Permanente workers are striking beginning on Thursday, in solidarity with roughly 600 engineers who say they are not paid as much as workers in similar positions in the Northern California region. The company had reached an agreement with 32,000 employees who were set to strike over a tiered pay system that would pay employees hired after 2023 lower wages.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center workers are also striking on Thursday; Boston Museum of Fine Arts workers went on strike on Wednesday; and bus drivers in Minneapolis are saying that they’re prepared to strike over low pay and safety concerns. Meanwhile, Kellogg’s workers are on the seventh week of their strike, and the company has filed a lawsuit against the union claiming that strikers are blocking the entrance to the plant.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 130 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy