Strike support at John Deere.

Showing up in solidarity mattered to me. So I knew it would matter to them.

Sunday night we were watching the news about the strike of 10,000 John Deere production workers.

I turned to Anne and asked, “Wanna drive to Moline tomorrow morning?”

“Of course,” she answered.

It’s a three-hour drive from Chicago to the Mississippi River town where John Deere’s international headquarters and several plants are located.

We pulled up to a group of strikers at the main gate of the combine production facility.

“You got family around here?” a striker asked when we introduced ourselves.

“Nope,” I answered. “We are union people and we just wanted to come out and show our support. I was on strike in 2003 and I know it made a difference when folks showed up to support us.”

“Well thanks for taking the trip here. We’ve gotten a lot of support from people in town. People honking, people stopping by and bringing food.”

At that moment a white pick-up went by and the driver, an older African American gentleman, hung his head out the window. “Sorry we took that deal in ‘97! I’ve regretted it ever since,” he yelled.

That was when the UAW and John Deere pushed an agreement to create a two-tier salary schedule, cutting new-hire pay by half.

Steve, a shop steward, was anxious to talk.

“They want people to think we’re making seventy thousand dollars a year. We’re making thirty and that covers benefits, not just salary. Meanwhile, you know what John May, the CEO made? $16 million this year.”

“And now they want to add a third tier to our pension. And make it a 401K. No way.”

The message strikers kept talking about is the two-tier salary imposed on them in 1997.

And they not only blame the company. The UAW leadership is the target of a lot of anger.

UAW members at John Deere voted over 99% to authorize a strike. Late last week the leadership presented them with a bare outline of what was agreed upon and urged the members to accept it.

Instead, the members overwhelmingly rejected it.

What’s different from past years? Workers in the Deere facilities have been working through the pandemic but feel like they have been disrespected. It's more than just the dollars.

“You don’t deserve to make more,” one striker was told by a supervisor. “You don’t even have a college degree.”

“Seems like having gone through the pandemic, folks are more willing to say no,” I said.

“That’s right,” said Steve. “We’re saying no.”