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Earlier this summer, John Deere said it was laying off more than 600 employees at three production plants in Illinois and Iowa, as well as an unannounced number of salaried employees at its corporate level. The company also said it plans to move the manufacturing of skid steer loaders and compact track loaders from its Dubuque, Iowa facility to Mexico by the end of 2026.
That’s why Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL-17), who represents the Congressional district where John Deere’s corporate headquarters are located, says he’s disappointed with the company’s recent decisions.
“I’m really frustrated because I don’t believe that Deere and Company is being forthcoming about their plans for the future,” he says.
The company is eliminating around 280 positions from a plant in East Moline, Illinois, while another 230 employees are being let go at a factory in Davenport, Iowa. About 100 production positions at the company’s Dubuque, Iowa, plant will also be eliminated.
The company claimed the layoffs were necessary because there has been a reduction in demand for products produced at some of its facilities in Iowa and Illinois.
In spite of the layoffs, Sorensen points to the fact that John Deere generated nearly $10.2 billion in profits in 2023, while the company’s CEO, John May, received $26.7 million in total compensation in 2023 according to the company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). May’s compensation in 2022 was listed at $20.3 million.
“There are challenges in the ag economy, but John Deere has been effective in making a profit for its shareholders,” says Sorensen. “Looking forward, we have to understand that it is a profitable company, and John Deere and Company is not going out of business. That’s the thing that’s concerning for me because I don’t believe that we’re at the end of the Deere and Company’s layoff period.”
Most of all, Sorensen says he’s concerned that if John Deere were to continue to lay off more of its employees and send those manufacturing jobs to Mexico, that could have a crippling effect on the U.S. ag economy.
“We need to know where the future of Deere and Company is going and we need to know that the future of agriculture in our country has an American-made John Deere being a part of that,” says Sorensen.
In early July, John Deere purchased 234 acres in northwestern Indiana with plans to build a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility near Lowell in Lake County. John Deere has spent $7 million on the site, with plans for the facility to be longer on its side than the Willis Tower—formerly Sears Tower—a 110-story, 1,451-foot skyscraper in Chicago. It is estimated that the project will create approximately 1,200 union construction jobs and 400-500 permanent positions upon completion.
Source: NAFB News Service