Sanders Rails Against John Deere Threat to Striking Workers’ Health Coverage

Sen. Bernie Sanders was among the labor advocates in Congress on Tuesday who condemned reports that farm equipment manufacturer John Deere plans to force 10,000 striking workers and their families off their health insurance plans next week — a punitive measure to coerce the employees into ending their strike over what they say is an unfair contract.

The Vermont independent senator called the company’s plan “beyond outrageous,” noting that John Deere’s profits have gone up by 67% in the past year, with a net income between $5.7 and $5.9 billion.

John Deere’s profits have exploded by some 67%, but workers who spent years with the company are now being forced off their insurance. That is beyond outrageous. John Deere is a hugely profitable company, and workers must be allowed to keep their health care during the strike.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 19, 2021

“Workers must be allowed to keep their healthcare during the strike,” Sanders said.

Unionized John Deere employees in Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), went on strike last week over plans to end pensions for newly-hired workers and pay raises amounting to only 5% to 6%, despite the company’s skyrocketing profits and a 160% boost in CEO John May’s compensation since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The strike is part of what labor advocates have called “Striketober.” In recent days, 24,000 nurses and other healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente have voted to authorize a strike if the company keeps its tow-tiered wages and benefits system, while over 1,400 Kellogg’s workers remain on the picket line and local unions nationwide are in various stages of authorizing work stoppages.

Jonah Furman of Labor Notes reported last Friday that striking John Deere workers have learned the company will cut them off from their health insurance plans starting October 27, weeks after Congress allowed COBRA subsidies to expire.

“They could just as easily not do this, but they want to break the strike,” Furman said.

John Deere is cutting off 10,000 workers (and their families’) health insurance on October 27th. They could just as easily *not* do this, but they want to break the strike.

Also: Congress let COBRA subsidies expire on October 1, putting workers on the hook for thousands of $$$. pic.twitter.com/Jj05zkX8ey

— Jonah Furman (@JonahFurman) October 15, 2021

At Common Dreams last week, Mark Dudzic, chair of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare, wrote that Striketober and corporation’s strike-breaking efforts bolster the case for Medicare for All.

“From cereal makers in Michigan to hospital workers in Buffalo, unionized workers are going on strike and rejecting contracts that shift the burden of pandemic recovery onto their backs,” wrote Dudzic. “Taking healthcare off the bargaining table by making it a right for everyone in America would vastly increase workers’ bargaining power and make it easier for workers to stand against vicious union-busting attacks.”