MOLINE, IL – John Deere union workers spend their 12th day out on the picket lines on Monday. Union workers walked off the job and onto the picket lines on October 14 after union leaders and the company could not agree on the terms of a new six-year contract.
KWWL-TV reports that UAW leaders and John Deere representatives met in Moline on Monday to continue to negotiate another contract.
“The longer this goes on, the more pressure there is on John Deere to settle,” said Todd Vachon, Director of the Rutgers Labor Education Action Research Network. “The workers are going to want a resolution as well, so the stakes get higher for both sides the longer that a strike goes on.”
Vachon said Deere has already felt the short-term effects of the strike. With its highly trained and skilled union workforce on strike, the company is operating at a reduced capacity. It has activated its Customer Service Continuation plan. As part of the plan, employees not involved in the strike will continue to work at the factories to keep operations running.
It is still early in the strike, so Vachon said the average worker might not feel the economic pressure.
Several restaurants and other businesses are offering a special or discount to striking UAW members to alleviate some of the financial burden.
According to Vachon, a mix of factors including workers being forced to show up in person throughout the pandemic, years of rising income inequality and the current labor shortage give the workers an upper hand.
