Source: Globe Gazette, Mason City, Iowa (TNS)
Jul. 25—WATERLOO — Deere and Co. provided details Thursday on the severance package offered to salaried employees who learned Wednesday they had lost their jobs.
Sixty-nine salaried employees at Deere and Co.’s Waterloo Works were let go Wednesday and another 34 in Dubuque, according to the state’s Iowa WARN website.
Read also: Deere to Lay Off 600 in Three Factories
“As the largest global manufacturer of agricultural equipment, John Deere, like many others in our industry, faces significant economic challenges, rising operational and manufacturing costs, and reduced customer demand, including a 20 percent decline in sales from 2023 to 2024,” Deere said in the statement.
“This reduction in product demand and increased operational costs have unfortunately forced us to make tough decisions including layoffs at John Deere production facilities and reductions in our global salaried workforce.
“We are committed to providing assistance and benefits to affected salaried employees. As part of this pledge, we are extending the following support to affected salaried employees in the U.S.:
- Up to 12 months of severance based on years of service.
- Pro-rated short-term incentive (STI) and long-term incentive cash (LTIC) compensation benefits.
- Payment for any earned and unused vacation or paid time off and other factors.
- Access to ongoing health and wellness benefits and 12 months of professional job placement services.
“While the decision to reduce roles across the company was a challenging one, the company is confident that these adjustments, coupled with our ongoing efforts to reduce costs and align production and inventory levels, will position John Deere strongly for the future,” the statement read.
Employees were notified in the Cedar Valley and at other Deere locations starting around 9 a.m. Wednesday, workers reported. Sources said workers were contacted virtually.
The total number of people affected is unclear, as workers at sites outside Iowa — such as at Deere’s Moline, Illinois headquarters, also may be affected. In the statement released to The Courier, the Deere did not disclose the total number of people separated from the company Wednesday.
Under Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, companies are required to notify the state when layoffs are planned. Iowa’s WARN website on Wednesday listed 69 workers at Waterloo Works, 3500 E. Donald St., as being idled by a “mass layoff.” Thirty-four workers at Deere’s Dubuque facility at 18600 S. John Deere Road also were listed as part of the “mass layoff.”
In early July, Deere informed employees the company will lay off another 345 Waterloo workers effective Sept. 20. The company also laid off seven employees at John Deere Coffeyville Works in Coffeyville, Kansas, effective Aug. 9.
The company said this month that John Deere Waterloo Operations currently has about 5,000 total employees with about 3,000 working in production and maintenance jobs.
Wednesday’s layoffs were the latest in a string of workforce reductions the company has announced in recent months.
On July 1, Deere confirmed 280 employees will be laid off effective Aug. 30 at a Moline, Illinois, factory, along with 299 production employees at John Deere Davenport Works and 111 workers at John Deere Dubuque works.
On June 5, Deere announced more than 120 job cuts at Seeding and Cylinder Operations in Moline. The day before Deere announced it was eliminating 58 jobs at John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group in Urbandale, 49 jobs at John Deere Waterloo Works and 16 jobs at John Deere Des Moines Works.
In May, 34 were laid off at Cylinder Works in Moline and 190 in Waterloo. That came after it was announced in April that 308 workers at the Waterloo factory would be laid off by the end of that month.
Last fall, 225 were laid off at Harvester Works in East Moline, bringing the total of laid off workers between September and Wednesday to nearly 2,000.
In its second-quarter earnings release in May, Deere reported a more than 15% decline in revenue, the third straight quarter of year-over-year sales declines. Company executives said at the time that they expected further sales declines in the second half of the fiscal year and said it would continue to “take proactive steps to reduce production and inventory.”
Deere & Co. turned in a quarterly profit of $2.37 billion, down from $2.86 billion in the same period the previous year, and lowered its full-year 2024 profit forecast for a second time as farmers continued to buy fewer tractors and other equipment due to declining prices for their crops.
In an attachment to Thursday’s statement titled “John Deere’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing,” the company noted:
— Since 2019, John Deere has invested more than $2 billion in our American factories, including our new See & Spray line at Des Moines Works in Des Moines, Iowa, the X9 combine assembly line at Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois, a new excavator factory in Kernersville, North Carolina and new tractor line assemblies in Waterloo.
— In order to position our U.S. factories to undertake these highly value-additive activities it is sometimes necessary to move less complex operations, such as cab assembly, to other locations.
— John Deere’s economic impact in our U.S. hometown communities and all those where we have a presence is valued at $27 billion.
— In the U.S., John Deere employs approximately 30,000 people in more than 60 U.S.-based facilities across 16 states. Meanwhile, our valued John Deere dealers employ over 50,000 people at dealerships across the country and in 2023, the company spent over $16 billion with U.S.-based suppliers.
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