Deere Strike

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Dsth said:
I often wonder how many tractors JD would sell if they did a reproduction of some of the 40 or 50 series tractors like the 4440 that were pretty much all mechanical operated and self maintained by most that owned them.
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They would print money

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at the last company I worked for, my boss was certainly wealthy, he retired and sold the company shortly after I left and has a nice place and a number of supercars... and I don't resent him for it at all, he is without a doubt both a brilliant mind and a stupid hard worker... he wasn't the early bird in the shop, usually showed up at 9am, but he was often there til 11pm, and took work home with him too. If a piece of equipment had a problem he'd work on it til it was done, and he worked along side the assembly people and we'd all figure it out.
Now when I was just coming up to my 2 year review, I'd spent 6 weeks on a particularly stubborn machine that NO ONE could get running and by the time I was done with it, it did what it was supposed to do.. this was a $500,000 machine that they were about to throw in the trash, and my pay raise? well, I was hoping for $2/hr, expecting 1... when I got 0.75 I was LIVID (this was on the shop manager more than the owner).. I wrote a letter and without saying any numbers, I got an additional $1.25.. the exact raise I'd hoped for... I got several more raises that year when 2 senior co-workers quit and I spent 5 months on the road


JD is much more than farm equipment, but like all "US" companies, they've outsources way too much to china and in JD's case, India.. no different from Cat and Cummins, and the quality has dropped seriously because of that.. I hear that pretty much all MFWD axles for all tractor manufacturers are made in the same factory.. Excavator booms are all made in china for all the big names, and the worst part of it is NONE of the savings are passed on the the consumer.. CAT wants $400 for a door latch, a fuel cap for my IH684 is $90

Indeed though, my biggest gripe with JD is their shift to being anti right to repair, lobbying lawmakers in their favor, etc

THAT is the great work these $20 million /year CEO's do, play golf to make laws that benefit them!
 
Nesikep said:
at the last company I worked for, my boss was certainly wealthy, he retired and sold the company shortly after I left and has a nice place and a number of supercars... and I don't resent him for it at all, he is without a doubt both a brilliant mind and a stupid hard worker... he wasn't the early bird in the shop, usually showed up at 9am, but he was often there til 11pm, and took work home with him too. If a piece of equipment had a problem he'd work on it til it was done, and he worked along side the assembly people and we'd all figure it out.
Now when I was just coming up to my 2 year review, I'd spent 6 weeks on a particularly stubborn machine that NO ONE could get running and by the time I was done with it, it did what it was supposed to do.. this was a $500,000 machine that they were about to throw in the trash, and my pay raise? well, I was hoping for $2/hr, expecting 1... when I got 0.75 I was LIVID (this was on the shop manager more than the owner).. I wrote a letter and without saying any numbers, I got an additional $1.25.. the exact raise I'd hoped for... I got several more raises that year when 2 senior co-workers quit and I spent 5 months on the road


JD is much more than farm equipment, but like all "US" companies, they've outsources way too much to china and in JD's case, India.. no different from Cat and Cummins, and the quality has dropped seriously because of that.. I hear that pretty much all MFWD axles for all tractor manufacturers are made in the same factory.. Excavator booms are all made in china for all the big names, and the worst part of it is NONE of the savings are passed on the the consumer.. CAT wants $400 for a door latch, a fuel cap for my IH684 is $90

Indeed though, my biggest gripe with JD is their shift to being anti right to repair, lobbying lawmakers in their favor, etc

THAT is the great work these $20 million /year CEO's do, play golf to make laws that benefit them!
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But if the share price goes up 20% it won't matter how they did it.
 
on the morning of Oct 27, a UAW member was killed crossing the street after his picket duty that morning. I was not able to find many details about how this happened, but regardless of how it happened, a 56 year old father lost his life. At 2:03 PM that day, JD management agreed to let striking UAW members park on JD property that had to cross unmarked or poorly lit intersections to report for strike duty. Management stated that the safety of their striking workers was still a high priority for JD. On the morning of Oct 28th, JD management sent out a second email stating that they would not be able to honor that statement because the JD corporation rejected managements decision to allow the parking change. I am glad that I DO NOT own any JD equipment and hope others will remember JD's attitude when purchasing equipment in the future because they have the same attitude towards their costumers.
 
Dsth said:
on the morning of Oct 27, a UAW member was killed crossing the street after his picket duty that morning. I was not able to find many details about how this happened, but regardless of how it happened, a 56 year old father lost his life. At 2:03 PM that day, JD management agreed to let striking UAW members park on JD property that had to cross unmarked or poorly lit intersections to report for strike duty. Management stated that the safety of their striking workers was still a high priority for JD. On the morning of Oct 28th, JD management sent out a second email stating that they would not be able to honor that statement because the JD corporation rejected managements decision to allow the parking change. I am glad that I DO NOT own any JD equipment and hope others will remember JD's attitude when purchasing equipment in the future because they have the same attitude towards their costumers.
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I get where you are coming from I do but I have to tell you I have owned a lot of different brands of equipment and at a dealership and corporate level Caterpillar and John Deere are far and above the others. I get that dealership are independently run but I can tell you they reflect the attitudes of what they sell. I also had an issue with a John Deere dealer here and when I addressed that on a JD customer service survey they had the salesman call and apologize. Truly impressed me. I recently made the mistake of buying a piece of equipment from another dealer/ brand and my interaction with them when I had an issue has assured me that any new equipment I buy in the future will be CAT or JD.

Companies are in business to make money, employees want all they can get. It will cause a conflict at some point in any business wether they employee 3 or 30,000. Add in a union and then you have grouped the whiners and underachievers together. Go to any corporation and ask the employees and they feel like they deserve more ask the owners they will say that the employees could be more productive. I can pretty well bet you that working for JD is far from a sweat shop environment.
 
Dsth said:
on the morning of Oct 27, a UAW member was killed crossing the street after his picket duty that morning. I was not able to find many details about how this happened, but regardless of how it happened, a 56 year old father lost his life. At 2:03 PM that day, JD management agreed to let striking UAW members park on JD property that had to cross unmarked or poorly lit intersections to report for strike duty. Management stated that the safety of their striking workers was still a high priority for JD. On the morning of Oct 28th, JD management sent out a second email stating that they would not be able to honor that statement because the JD corporation rejected managements decision to allow the parking change. I am glad that I DO NOT own any JD equipment and hope others will remember JD's attitude when purchasing equipment in the future because they have the same attitude towards their costumers.
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So someone who's turned on the company, picketing them and refusing to do their job wanders out in traffic and it's JDs fault. ??
 
I buy John Deere because of parts. They may be sleazier than a piss martini but you can get parts sooner or later at some inflated price.
 
callmefence said:
So someone who's turned on the company, picketing them and refusing to do their job wanders out in traffic and it's JDs fault. ??
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I can understand striking if there is a legitimate issue at hand, and I'm not saying there is or isn't in this situation. Can't see where a company is responsible for anything if they are not on the job though.
 
Ky hills said:
I can understand striking if there is a legitimate issue at hand, and I'm not saying there is or isn't in this situation. Can't see where a company is responsible for anything if they are not on the job though.
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"It was to dark on the corner because JD had an injunction put in place that said no burn barrels"
On the local news this morning they reported that the street lights have been fixed and picketers are now wearing reflective vests.
 
Everyone has the right to be happy at work. If your not happy with JD go somewhere else.

A neighbor's father (my grandpa's generation) was a Swedish immigrant. He quit working for Deere because they would only let him work 16hr days scooping coal into the foundry furnace! He started farming full time because he could work as long as he wanted.
I'd like to find that kind of work ethic on a picket line.
 
We left the Union 15(?) years ago. We currently make a little more than people that belong to the
Union we left. ESOP's are high risk. The decision was made several months back that the starting wage for
new hires would go to $14.00/hr. a $4.00 increase as an incentive. Those of us who have worked there 20+ years
did not receive any increase in wages, we were told that in October we would receive a pay increase, sure
enough, stapled to our last pay checks was a chocolate Hershey Bar.

The founding owner of this business always seemed to take really good care of his employees, with his passing the
employees well being is no longer a priority or even a consideration. The current wage isn't really coming
close to staying up with the increase of our living cost. But the individuals employed at the head office are
doing well.

Our current manager stated he has hired 150+ people in the last 1-2 years, very few have stayed more than a month.
Some of us get caught between a rock and a hard spot, for some it takes more spine to stay with the job than to walk away.
For me, options in my area are not plentiful, so I will probably keep working this job until my spine physically won't allow me to.
 

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