Fury as one of America’s oldest companies slashes jobs in the Midwest as it shifts work to Mexico: ‘It’s greed’

John Deere is sparking outrage by laying off American workers and moving more of its agricultural equipment manufacturing to Mexico.

Since October 2023, more than 1,000 John Deere workers have either been laid off or pushed into an early retirement across several plants in Iowa and Illinois.

In many instances, production that these US workers were responsible for has been shifted to new locations in Mexico. The company was founded 187 years ago.

More layoffs are expected later this year – despite John Deere raking in over $10 billion in profit in 2023 while also paying CEO John May $26.7 million in total compensation. 

A longtime John Deere worker at the Harvester Works plant in East Moline, Illinois, told The Guardian it comes down to one thing: Greed.

How John Deere is cutting workers at its plants in the Midwest

Portrait of John Deere, the man who founded the company that bears his name to this day

‘We get wind of more layoffs daily, it seems, and it’s causing uncertainty all over,’ said the worker, who stayed anonymous for fear of retaliation.

‘The only reason for Deere to do this is greed.’ 

The company, these days almost exclusively known for its green tractors and iconic leaping deer logo, was established nearly two centuries ago in 1837.

In its early days, it produced self scouring steel plows, which revolutionized farming and replaced the inferior cast iron plow that would often get stuck in sticky soil.

Now, John Deere, which still bears its founder’s name, manufactures everything from tractors, construction vehicles, mowers and even snowmobiles.

It’s expanded quite a bit since its 19th century humble beginnings, boasting a total of 109 factories and offices globally. 

Many of the company’s dozens of factories in the US are the largest employers in small Midwest towns, making it especially devastating when dozens or even hundreds of people are suddenly out of job and don’t have many places to turn.

XX Should we have the Dubuque job losses here too – bunch them all together, at least on first mention. And can we do them in chronological order – May is before March. Also assuming this first Oct one is 2023. And/or a little fact box on them, which we could also get made up ona  little graphic of Iowa showing Factory location and town, population, jobs lost (and jobs left). Might be good to summarise that way. But can do it a fact box first and then decide on map graphic

In October 2023, John Deere kicked off its most recent rash of job cuts in Illinois, when it announced 225 layoffs at the Harvester Works plant in East Moline, a town of less than 21,000. 

Another 34 production employees were laid off in May at neighboring town Moline’s cylinder works factory.

On March 12, company officials announced that they would lay off 150 more workers at the plant in Ankeny, Iowa, where sprayers and cotton pickers are made.

The most recent job cuts came to Waterloo, Iowa, a small town that has the distinction of being the site where John Deere produced its first gasoline-powered tractors back in 1918. 

John Deere’s Harvester Works facility in East Moline, Illinois, where 225 workers were indefinitely laid off in October 2023

Inside a  John Deere plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, where over 100 jobs were cut this year

Pictured: Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart, who said John Deere is hugely important to the town he leads

A total of 500 workers were laid off across the multiple facilities in Waterloo, with 308 being let go in March and another 192 being dismissed as of June 22, the Des Moines Register reported.

The company employs 5,200 people in Waterloo, making it the largest employer in town, with about 3,300 of them working in production and maintenance. 

The layoffs come two years after John Deere announced it was moving Waterloo’s tractor and cab production to Ramos, Mexico.

Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart told DailyMail.com that residents are ‘disappointed and upset.’

‘Any time you have a major employer’ initiate layoffs ‘it’s a challenge for the local community,’ Hart told DailyMail.com.

Hart went on to say that many people in Waterloo have relatives going back decades who’ve built careers at John Deere. 

Many of Hart’s own family members, including his father, worked and retired from the company.

Hart added that John Deere’s influence isn’t limited to the thousands of people it employs in his town of 66,000.

It’s also a philanthropic giant in the area, regularly working with affordable housing organizations, providing internships to aspiring young people and unloading millions of dollars in grants to help benefit local organizations.

The city of Waterloo, Iowa. It has a population of 66,000 and is the county seat of Black Hawk County

A glimpse at the John Deere factory in Waterloo back in 1944 

Tim Cummings, the union president of the local chapter of United Auto Workers 838, slammed John Deere over the Waterloo layoffs.

‘I urge John Deere to stop outsourcing and bring these products back to our factories and allow our talented workforce to produce these products at home where they are used by North American farmers and businesses,’ he told local affiliate KWWL in May. 

Workers at a plant in Ottumwa, another tiny town in Iowa, faced a dilemma somewhat dissimilar from what their fellow employees went through.

They’ve been expecting job cuts for two years, ever since John Deere announced in 2022 it would be moving the factory’s production of mower conditioners to Monterrey, Mexico.

In February, the workers were presented with an offer to retire early. Those with at least one year at the factory would get $15,000, while employees with 25 years or more of experience received $72,000.

With some afraid they’d eventually lose their jobs anyway, 103 workers took the deal and said goodbye to the factory on May 31. 

The very next day, another 16 employees who didn’t take the retirement package had their jobs eliminated.

Workers at a plant in Ottumwa, another tiny town in Iowa, had been expecting layoffs for two years after John Deere announced a portion of its production line would be shifted to Mexico

The rash of layoffs coincide with John Deere executives saying they believe that farmers around the world will likely spend less money over the next six months

Pictured: John Deere CEO John May made $26.7 million in total compensation last year

Chris Laursen, 53, is one of the workers who decided on an early exit and said he worries about towns across the US that are reliant one big employer like Ottumwa is.

‘[For] a lot of these communities, like mine in Ottumwa, losing John Deere would be an extremely big loss. It’s a town of 28,000, and the only other manufacturing is a pork processing facility, so it doesn’t leave a lot of options for jobs,’ Laursen told the Guardian.

He said he believes John Deere sees Mexico as a cheap source of labor with the added benefit that it can import steel there for much cheaper and sell products built with that steel back to the American market.

John Deere has said the yearslong move to Mexico can be attributed to rising manufacturing costs.

In the shorter term, John Deere investor relations director Josh Beal said in a May earnings call that farmers around the world will likely spend less money on equipment over the rest of this year – which would hit the company’s bottom line.

Weeks after that earnings call – which sent the company’s stock plummeting 11 percent in a single day – around 3,000 John Deere workers in Dubuque were hit with bad news. 

In the beginning of June, they made aware that production of two of the factory’s major products will be shifted to Mexico, similar to what’s already happened with two other Iowa manufacturing plants. 

Iowa farm near Dubuque – where a John Deere factory could lose workers

The city of Dubuque, Iowa. Less than 60,000 people live here and John Deere is the largest employer in the county, according to locals

Farmers in the Arkansas Valley check out a John Deere combine harvester on February 11, 1960 

The construction of two types of multipurpose landscaping and/or construction vehicles will be relocated from the Dubuque factory to a plant in Ramos, Mexico by 2026. 

Workers in Dubuque will continue to make plenty of other farm and construction equipment, but the company hasn’t yet shared when or how many employees will be phased out over the coming months and years.

Dubuque, like many of the towns affected in John Deere’s labor cost cutting frenzy, isn’t a huge town with loads of opportunities waiting right around the corner.

Danny Sprank, a member of the Dubuque City Council, said as much in an interview with DailyMail.com.

‘If John Deere were to do some major shuttering or layoffs, that would definitely affect our Greater Dubuque Community overall,’ Sprank said.

‘They are the largest employer in the county, and that would definitely affect citizens’ lives.’ 

Sprank works full time at Jim Giese Commercial Roofing and said at least four of his fellow roofers have left in the last few years to go work for John Deere.

Because of the good pay and benefits, ‘it’s one of the most coveted employers to work for in our community,’ Sprank said.

The four workers who left his local roofing company for the John Deere plant in Dubuque still work there. 

At the time of their departure, they were all men in their mid- to late-twenties, some of whom have families and young children to take care of, Sprank told DailyMail.com.

He is very concerned that people like his former colleagues, who made a rational career move to boost their salaries, will ultimately pay the price as John Deere seeks to lessen its manufacturing in the US. 

‘Generally, how companies operate…when they’re going to do some type of structured layoff, it’s never the top down. It’s always the new guys,’ Sprank added. 

A John Deere factory in Brazil. The company is moving production there, as well as Mexico

 More than 10,000 workers at John Deere went on strike for five weeks in 2021. They won a 10 percent raise for hourly earners  and increased retirement benefits

The layoffs come after 10,000 unionized John Deere workers went on strike for five weeks in October 2021.

The strikes were among the most prominent during ‘Striketober’, where thousands of workers from Nabisco, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s and others walked out for weeks or even months to protest low pay in the wake soaring company profits.

Striking John Deere employees won a 10 percent raise for hourly earners, increased retirement benefits and the maintaining of the health insurance program that workers don’t have to pay premiums for.

DailyMail.com approached John Deere for comment regarding the ongoing layoffs but didn’t receive an immediate response.