John Deere faces boycott calls after laying off workers while also moving operations to Mexico
John Deere recently announced a round of layoffs; almost 300 individuals across two states. This year, John Deere has laid off approximately 2,100 workers. This company is also planning on moving its operations to Mexico. Farmers criticized the company’s move to lay individuals off while also looking to Mexico. John Deere responded that these layoffs were necessary because of reduced demand.
From Daly Mail:
The 2,100 layoffs are across several Iowa sites – Ankeny, Dubuque, Ottumwa, Urbandale, Waterloo – plus Davenport and East Moline in Illinois, as well as a research center in Urbandale.
Wednesday’s layoffs affect about 200 production workers at the harvester factory in East Moline, Illinois. Additionally, 80 workers in Davenport, Iowa will also lose their jobs, along with seven in Moline, Illinois.
They were the latest batch of layoffs this year, after 103 jobs were also cut in July, for the company founded 187 years ago.
In many instances, production that these US workers were responsible for is being shifted to new locations in Mexico.
But the company insisted Wednesday that the layoffs are unrelated to its production moving to Mexico.
Instead, bosses attributed the job cuts to a decline in demand for tractors and other agricultural equipment, which has resulted from falling crop prices and farmers reducing their expenditures.
Movement of production to Mexico has attracted the attention of politicians.
Donald Trump said in September that he will slap a 200 percent tariff on John Deere’s imports into the US if the company goes ahead with plans to move production to Mexico.
At the start of the year, John Deere employed about 22,600 salaried and production workers across the two states.
The company has pointed to a 20 percent fall in sales from 2023 to 2024.
More layoffs are expected – despite John Deere raking in over $10 billion in profit in 2023 while also paying CEO John May $26.7 million in total compensation.
Additional Reading:
Jones, D. (2024, October 18). John Deere faces farmer boycott after laying off 2,100 US workers while moving work to Mexico. Daily Mail. Link.
Going Woke is indicative of executives with poor decision making ability.
All the usual suspects for exporting US Jobs Vanguard, Black Rock, JP Morgan.
It killed Dodge when they started making Trucks in Mexico in the early 2000s. Reliability and sales plummeted. Costs ballooned due to all the payoffs to try to keep the thugs happy in the socialist paradise of Mexico. Dodge went under within 7 years and eventually moved production back on shore.
Somewhat of a correction, Ram trucks are no longer Dodge and are made in Mexico. Of all trucks brands they are typically rated the lowest. Even Toyota and Nissan make their big trucks in the US.
It looks to me like John Deere, being a Global Company, has noticed that the US market is no longer as viable as the other countries around the world. Maybe they don’t really give a crap because they are planning to down size their US production anyway?
It’s a shame too. They still made good products, just expensive accessories.
Hey! That green paint ain’t cheap! And howdahell do you expect a CEO to survive on a paltry $26 million a year in salary? You been to a grocery store lately? Bought any fuel for your vehicle? Dood probably spends his Sunday mornings clipping coupons from the newspaper just to make ends meet. Bless his heart.
That and how does Larry Fink explain that they only made $10B in profit when it should have 10.5?
Ohhhh, feel the burn!
He said “bless his heart”.
Yes, but farmers cannot repair their own equipment they must use a Deere service tech.
Deere is meeting emissions by dumping more and more DEF into the system. Other manufacturers are using more catalyst, regen systems etc. Europe has a Tier 5 that they must meet. A company I worked for started selling the Fendt line, the fuel system was getting clogged up because the filter system was pulling the red dye out of the American diesel. Fendt does not recommend cleaning air filters, they want them replaced. A day in southwest caliche and the filter is done. A couple hundred bucks a day for air filters is ridiculous. The heavy tractor business is a mess. Plus the tractors are to smart for the guys programming the fields into them.
Seems to me I read that suit was decided against Deere?
I only own one Deere and love it…till it breaks – and then I have to make a 70 mile round trip to get parts to a United Ag store.
“Nothing runs like a Deere”
This is known as irony.
Seems like large tractor ( >80hp) production in the US is slowly becoming extinct. The Case IH plant in Racine, WN is the only one I can think of. Ironically, both Mahindra and Kubota have factories here.
“Mexico”, by the Rocketones 1957 on the melba label
A toast! To Melba!