Posted on 06/29/2024 9:49:57 AM PDT by DFG
John Deere is sparking outrage by laying off American workers and moving more of its agricultural equipment manufacturing to Mexico.
Since October 2023, more than 1,000 John Deere workers have either been laid off or pushed into an early retirement across several plants in Iowa and Illinois.
In many instances, production that these US workers were responsible for has been shifted to new locations in Mexico. The company was founded 187 years ago.
More layoffs are expected later this year - despite John Deere raking in over $10 billion in profit in 2023 while also paying CEO John May $26.7 million in total compensation.
A longtime John Deere worker at the Harvester Works plant in East Moline, Illinois, told The Guardian it comes down to one thing: Greed.
'We get wind of more layoffs daily, it seems, and it's causing uncertainty all over,' said the worker, who stayed anonymous for fear of retaliation.
'The only reason for Deere to do this is greed.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Not greed, the UAW
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Actually it is greed, but the greed comes from the UAW. The people in Mexico who work in the John Deere plants are glad to get 1/4th of what the UAW demands here. Part of the problem is that unions have too Much power. When you can shut down an entire industry you have too much power.
Capitalism works when not unnecessarily fettered as it is here in many industries.
I worked for a company and made the owner a millionaire but he thought our original agreement of my 10% of profits became too high and he cut my percentage. I reluctantly agreed but then a few years later he cut it again. I said no and he said either accept it or be fired I said ok, fire me and he fired me. I started a competing business. He offered to hire me back and I said no thanks.
While there are many hoops to jump through and you have to have some money saved up to start a business we did it. We hired a few people and I did that until retirement. I didn’t take any money out of the business for the first year . The profits from our business allowed us to purchase for cash several houses that we still own and rent out. We have a substantial income in our retirement years and don’t worry about what happens to Social Security. Capitalism, it’s wonderful! Unions, well sometimes they suck.
It’s greed when workers ask for anything. But it’s not greed when a CEO makes 26,000,000 a year.
Perfect.... Juan Deere and Traitor Supply!
UAW and Union government taxes/regulations. Who wouldn’t leave?
This is just a bit of final mop up.
Accusations of “greed” as an explanation are misguided. They brand the speaker as an economic ignoramus. They are emotive, but it backfires with me. For starters, “greed” is left undefined. If you make money, you are greedy. If I make money, I’m smart. That’s often the way it works.
What is really going on? If unions drive up wages, they drive down employment. That’s the law of demand and it ranks right up there with the law of gravity as something you can rely upon. If environmentalists drive up energy costs, they drive down manufacturing. Government taxes and regulations also deserve scrutiny.
John Deere should also consider the rule of law in Mexico. Might they have to pay bribes or face a shut-down. Deere should also consider the rule of law in the US. Might they have to pay bribes or face a shut-down here.
If John Deere later claims to be a flag waving American company, anyone is free to yell BS.
Right, that is what killed Hostess. Even as they going bankrupt and closing buildings the union would not budge.
> Insane union work rules. <
Right. That’s something I forgot to mention in my post #14.
Many decades ago I worked in a union rolling mill. If a light bulb went out, only a union electrician was allowed to change it. So all work in the area stopped (for safety reasons) until an electrician showed up. Crazy.
By the way, that rolling mill is now shut down. No surprise there.
My company has a large manufacturing plant in Tjiuana. It preserved all of the sales, marketing, engineering, and research jobs in the US. Labor was a huge part of it. The jobs are hot and dirty. Say what you want about the fabled American who just wants a decent paying job with benefits but it’s not accurate. Especially if you want the worker to show up on time everytime and work hard.
We could not staff our plants in the US and still have a viable price point. Everyone talks about wanting high wages but no one wants to pay high prices. $20/hr and gold plated benefits. That’s was 15 years ago. I’m not sure how much $ would have been enough.
Also energy and raw materials are cheaper in Mex.
It’s survival.
“doubt that the management of Deere wanted to pack up and leave for Mexico to set up shop there - it’s not exactly the best place for Americans to raise children.”
They won’t live there. They will have luxury corporate villas and fly in and out in Gulfstreams for a few days. They will all have 19 year old Mexican “maids”. “No honey, it’s not near the beach. It’s a kinda rough industrial area, you and the kids might as well stay here. I’ll just be a few days.”
Add in cheap foreign labor bumping the stock price and their bonuses.
Disneyland for executive dads.
Yeah, they complained when Caterpillar moved out of Peoria, Illinois, too. Now, Peoria’s top businesses are all hospitals and healthcare with one Indian (the country) owned bank in the mix.
Caterpillar suffered no long term harm.
No you idiots who called this greed. It’s called survival. They have to get out from under the insane taxes and regulations in what used to be America.
Yes. Corporate greed is also very real. Unions want unskilled labor to make $40 an hour, plus benefits. And skilled labor, even more. That’s not sustainable.
But then the folks at the top pay themselves many millions. So in a way, you can’t blame workers for asking for the Moon.
I wish I could find the article. But it said that in the past, American CEOs made something like 40 times the salary of the average worker. In some companies the multiple is now 500 or more.
Tariffs make stuff more expensive. They also give the Democrats dollars to buy more votes. Tariffs don’t stop the flow of goods made by people getting a fourth of American wages and salaries.
An item once imported for $1 and sold for $5 with a 25% tariff can be equally profitably sold at $5.25. The Wall Street elite knows this. Trump and you should know that too.
The motor vehicle business needs to be financially balanced by nation as the US & Canadian auto industry was in my youth.
The US needs to go to a blocked currency like India has. The Russians selling oil to India have been told they can buy Indian goods and services in exchange for that oil.
Recreating manufacturing jobs in Midwestern cities will revive them and help relieve the housing price and homeless problems of US coastal cities.
“40 times”
“Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day, ...tell you...that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry.”
President Roosevelt in 1938
https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/flsa1938
If the executive gets fired for bad financial performance they get nothing.
I guess that is greed.
Lol.
The Mexicans obtain jobs transporting illegals and drugs into the US as well as taking our manufacturing jobs.
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