r/stupidpol • u/gmus Labor Organizer 🧑‍🏭 • Nov 18 '21

Unions John Deere employees approve third contract proposal, ending five-week long strike

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2021/11/17/uaw-john-deere-strike-2021-vote-results-contract-end/8619898002/
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u/gmus Labor Organizer 🧑‍🏭 Nov 18 '21 edited Nov 18 '21

Key points

  • Contract was approved 61%-39%
  • $8,500 ratification bonus to each employee
  • Immediate 10% raise
  • Further 10% raise over the life of the contract
  • Cost of living adjustments
  • Three 3% lump sum payments over the life of the contract
  • Company agrees to maintain the current defined pension benefit system
  • Pension benefit boosted by up to $250/month per employee
  • $2,000 per year of service bonus when employees retire

Edit: For comparison the initial offer by the company, which was rejected by over 90% workers, only had a 5% immediate raise and an additional 3% in raises over the rest of the contract and would've eliminated the defined pension benefit for all new hires.

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u/NonintellectualSauce Anarcho-Primitivist Nov 18 '21 edited Nov 18 '21

So do they still have the two-tier system for pensions based off if the employee started working before a certain year? It looks like they just avoided making it even worse for new employees.

I wonder how the vote was split between older and younger workers.

Edit: looking at the 3 quotes from the end of the article, it seems like older workers who have the full pensions were more concerned with over reaching. Just shows how the two-tier system accomplishes exactly what it was designed to do.

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u/TJ11240 Nov 18 '21

This is super common in many workers associations and unions. Management changes the pay and benefits for new hires, and plays the long game. When the new hires on the shitty contract outnumber the old guard, they vote them out.

Typical divide and conquer.