Members of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) employed by Deere & Co. voted 61 percent to 39 percent to ratify the labor agreement reached earlier this week. The agreement covers 10,000 employees in 14 Deere plants.
What’s in the Deere agreement?
- An $8,500 signing bonus
- 20 percent increase in wages over the lifetime of the contract with 10 percent this year
- Return of cost of living adjustments (COLA
- Three 3 percent lump sum payments
- Enhanced options for retirement
- Enhanced CIPP performance benefits
- Healthcare remains the same for the life of the agreement.
“I’m pleased our highly skilled employees are back to work building and supporting the industry-leading products which make our customers more profitable and sustainable,” said John C. May, chairman/CEO for Deere, in a prepared statement. “John Deere’s success depends on the success of our people. Through our new collective bargaining agreements, we’re giving employees the opportunity to earn wages and benefits that are the best in our industries and are groundbreaking in many ways. We have faith that, in return, our employees will find new and better ways to improve our competitiveness and transform the way our customers do their work. Together, our future is bright.”
Said Ray Curry, UAW president, in a statement:
“UAW John Deere members did not just unite themselves, they seemed to unite the nation in a struggle for fairness in the workplace.”
A report in the Washington Post suggests the pandemic has given workers incentive to ask more from their employers.
