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Earlier this month, the world's largest farm equipment maker and
the UAW union reached an agreement after weeks of negotiation on
wages and other benefits, but 90% of the union's workers voted
against the deal.
The tentative deal covered about 10,000 production and
maintenance employees across 14 facilities in the United States.
"Pickets have been set up, and our members are organized and
ready to hold out and fight for a contract they believe meets
their needs," Ron McInroy, director of UAW Region 4, said on
Thursday.
Separately, Deere said it remained committed to reaching a new
agreement, adding that it had not yet estimated when it would
complete negotiations.
The now-rejected offer would have given 5% wage hikes for some
workers and 6% for some others. The proposed deal had also
called for 3% raises in 2023 and 2025.
The workers understand that they had to make concessions on some
benefits in the past and now they want to get some of it back at
a time when Deere is doing "very well financially" and labor
shortages persist industry-wide, a source familiar with the
talks told Reuters.
Deere, which has about 27,500 employees in the United States and
Canada, had earlier said its operations would continue as
normal.
The strike is set to take place in the middle of the U.S. corn
and soybean harvest season, at a time when farmers are
struggling to find parts for tractors and combines.
The last strike against Deere by the UAW was in 1986 when
workers sat out for 163 days.
The company, due to report full-year results late November, has
forecast a record net income of $5.7 billion to $5.9 billion.
(Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru; Additional
reporting by Shubham Kalia; Editing by Sweta Singh, Maju Samuel
and Ramakrishnan M.)
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