As things get tougher for the American people, they’re also getting tougher for American companies.
Sadly, this means that some large and small businesses are being forced to make difficult choices.
And now Joe Biden just forced this iconic American company to pack up and head for greener pastures… in Mexico.
John Deere shocks workers with a major announcement
The John Deere brand is easily one of the most recognizable brands in America thanks to its iconic green and yellow color scheme and leaping buck logo.
But this iconic American company has announced more planned layoffs of several hundred workers at its Illinois and Iowa plants.
According to the company, it will cut 280 jobs from an East Moline, Illinois plant and another 280 from a factory in Davenport, Iowa.
Another 100 production workers at John Deere’s Dubuque, Iowa plant will also lose their jobs, and all of the layoffs will be effective starting August 30.
The company says the layoffs are being made due to reduced demand from those factories, but workers are calling the move “greed,” plain and simple.
An anonymous longtime John Deere worker at the East Moline plant said, “We get wind of more layoffs daily, it seems, and it’s causing uncertainty all over.”
“The only reason for Deere to do this is greed,” he added.
The insider said the company has had high profits, and John Deere itself reported receiving a profit of over $10 billion in fiscal year 2023.
Meanwhile, CEO John May recently received $26.7 million in compensation, and the company spent over $7.2 billion on stock buybacks in 2023, giving shareholders over $1.4 billion in dividends.
“Our harvester plant is still in production and management has been quiet. They’re not doing the normal ‘time to talk’ meetings as they have in recent past. My belief is that they don’t want people to know they are losing their jobs until they get everything built for the year,” the insider said.
The worker also noted that employees “know a layoff is coming,” but they don’t know “if, how many, or when it will happen.”
The company announced 250 indefinite layoffs in October of last year at its Illinois plant, and another 34 workers were laid off in May of 2024.
Some production is moving to Mexico
Not only will hundreds more workers be laid off in the coming months, but the company is also moving some of its operations to Mexico.
Earlier this month, John Deere said it would move the manufacturing of skid steer loaders and compact truck loaders from its Dubuque facility to Mexico.
The move is slated to be complete by the end of 2026.
Chris Laursen, a 53-year-old John Deere worker, decided to take early retirement from his job at the Ottumwa, Iowa plant.
He said, “[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 have a lot of options for jobs.”
