Deere Workers Vote to Approve Contract

I think that this is a win, though not a total win.

Given the proclivities of John Deere, I'm wondering how their management will try to rat-f%$# the deal though:

About 10,000 workers at the agriculture equipment maker Deere & Company will go back to work after the approval of a contract on Wednesday, bringing to an end a five-week strike that affected 14 facilities primarily in Iowa and Illinois.

The six-year contract was ratified, 61 percent to 39 percent, after workers voted down two earlier agreements between the United Automobile Workers and the company, which is known for its distinctive green-and-yellow John Deere products. The new contract raises wages and includes language that makes the company’s performance pay more generous.

“Our members’ courageous willingness to strike in order to attain a better standard of living and a more secure retirement resulted in a groundbreaking contract and sets a new standard for workers not only within the U.A.W. but throughout the country,” Chuck Browning, the director of the union’s agricultural equipment department, said in a statement.

………

Under the agreement, workers can earn 20 percent beyond their base pay when they hit productivity targets, rather than 15 percent, according to a union spokesman.

The other provisions of the contract are the same as those in a proposal that workers rejected in early November, including wage increases of 10 percent this year and 5 percent each in 2023 and 2025, along with lump-sum payments equal to 3 percent of wages in the remaining years of the contract.

That proposal also gave future employees a traditional pension — something that current workers have but that the union’s initial agreement with the company omitted for new hires — and established a post-retirement health care fund.

Here's hoping that this is just the first of many successful labor actions against management chuds.