Deere Announces Tentative Agreement With UAW

Deere & Company has reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers union to replace the six-year master labor contract that expired at midnight.

"The tentative agreement is for six years and will now be presented to members for a ratification vote," Ken Golden, Deere's Director of Global Public Relations, said in a statement released early Thursday morning (October 1, 2015). "Other terms of the agreement will not be made public."

The UAW represents approximately 10,000 Deere manufacturing employees at 12 factories in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas. The master agreement covers manufacturing employees at John Deere facilities in Davenport, Ankeny, Dubuque, Ottumwa and Waterloo, Iowa; East Moline, Moline and Milan, Illinois; and Coffeyville, Kansas.

Golden said the company plans to honor its agreement with the UAW to make no further public comment on the negotiations.

UAW Local 838 members plan to vote on the tentative agreement this weekend. A contract ratification meeting is scheduled to take place at the McLeod Center on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls on Sunday, starting at 11:30 a.m. Doors open at 10 a.m.

The meeting is open to Deere workers with a current UAW union card. Retirees may attend.