The Intersection of Labor on Two Different Fronts
The collective human consciousness is divided on the topic of workers’ rights and has been since before these thoughts were ever formally introduced into the realm of academia. This division has caused a lot of different veins of discourse to open up, but one that seemingly slips everyone’s mind is the intersectionality of workers’ rights and the consumers that are potentially affected. Workers of all industries are responsible for producing goods and services for consumers and other labor forces and the interconnection of them all allows the world market to function properly.
However, workers fighting for rights in the workplace can hinder the production of these goods and services. The most obvious implication of this is when workers refuse to work in order to pressure their employer to provide them with whatever demands they are trying to obtain. This tactic is known as a strike and this tactic has been used since the time of the Egyptian Empire in 1170 BCE.
John Deere, a tractor and farm supplies manufacturer, had workers strike in late 2021 when around 10,000 workers risked their jobs in an effort to receive a more substantial pay raise and afford new hires with the same retirement benefits as they received when they were hired. These 10,000 workers were a part of a union group formed by the United Auto Workers. UAW is a Detroit-based union advocacy group that was formed in 1935 to help auto workers in the motor city obtain social and economic rights from their employers.
Negotiations between John Deere and UAW had started a few weeks before the contract was due to expire on October 1, 2021, but had been temporarily extended to finish negotiations. Even though UAW claimed the proposed contract would be beneficial to both new and existing workers, members of the union outstandingly voted against the new contract on October 10, 2021. Since the proposal did not pass union members set October 14, 2021, as the day they were going to strike.
Workers’ rights are important, but they can be considerably taxing on everyone involved and connected to the business that is being protested. The union members that participated in the strike lost out on almost an entire month’s worth of pay as well as the company losing out on the production power of 7.5% of their workers. However, that does not take away from the fact that these strikes were imperative to help coax John Deere into providing the rights that their workers deserve.
Jill Scott, a UAW representative for John Deere, said, “Over the last 13 years, I have gotten very involved with the union (UAW) and the labor movement. Just trying to make sure that women’s rights and protections for us are just as important as anything else.”
Despite what they were giving up, those participating in the strike received a payment of $275 a week by the UAW to incentivize the workers to forgo their usual pay in order to put pressure on John Deere to accept a proper contract. This is a fraction of what most of the union members would receive from a normal work week’s worth of pay, which made the decision hard for many individuals.
The stark difference in pay meant that, for some members, them and their families would suffer greatly, but most, if not all, joined in the efforts. From October 14 to November 17, union members took a stand against John Deere and ultimately persuaded them to agree to boost worker pay over a period of six years. This included a 10% increase in the first year, followed by a 5% increase in the contract’s third and fifth years along with a new worker signing bonus of $8500. While John Deere workers may have got what they wanted, the hard-fought strikes had major implications for other sections of the supply chain.
John Deere was founded in 1837 selling steel plows by none other than John Deere himself. Since then, John Deere as a manufacturer has been a leader in agricultural development across America supplying farmers and everyday people with vehicles and products to aid in their endeavors.
John Deere is the largest producer and seller of agricultural equipment in the world selling twice that of the next 2 competitors combined. Their largest consumer base is in fact farmers, and they are easily one of the most affected demographics by the strikes.
In an already inflated market, farmers suffered from higher prices for used John Deere tractors and combines as well as a shortage of replacement and repair parts due to the 10 to 15% reduction in production in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. This comes at a time when family farmers are being decimated by economic hardship as it is, widely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, suicide rates, loan delinquency, bankruptcy, and the altogether stoppage of farming are all on the rise among the small farm community.
Scott came from a family of farmers and has experienced this decline in local, small farms over the past few decades. “It’s gotten to be a pretty big business now. There’s very few that I know of, anyways, small farmers like what I grew up in,” said Scott.
Crisis after crisis puts more of these farmers out of a job and many become forced to sell their land out to corporate farms in order to survive. The increase in John Deere prices and their lack of available parts have not been surveyed yet but the outcome cannot be good.
John Deere workers and farmers could not be any more different from each other. John Deere workers are stuck inside doing the same monotonous task over and over for 10 to 12 hours at a time. Farmers on the other hand, work with nature and are forced to learn, adapt, and overcome the subjective nature of the weather, soil, and crop growth. However, their similarities and interconnectedness have been drawn out by the strikes in late 2021.
Both demographics have and are currently struggling against the powers of the market. John Deere workers have to deal with the overwhelming market power their employers hold over them and farmers’ labor costs are determined by the volatile market of the goods they produce. Both are forced to fight for their voices to be heard due to their inability to hold significance in how the market swings. Workers, both white and blue-collar, face these issues and they do not discriminate whether someone wears a suit and tie or a pair of coveralls and steel-toed boots.
