John Deere to Layoff 112 Workers at Iowa Tractor Plant After Christmas
More than 110 John Deere workers in Waterloo, Iowa were told earlier this week that they will no longer have a job after Christmas.
The company plans to layoff those workers at Waterloo Works, the largest production facility in the company, effective Jan. 5.
According to the Des Moines Register, the announcement is the sixth layoff by Deere in Waterloo in 2024, which serves as one of the major sites for tractor manufacturing. Deere points to farm income projections for 2025 falling further behind, creating a lower demand forecast for new equipment.
This past summer, John Deere had already announced the layoffs of 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.
In September, former President Donald Trump said during a campaign visit in Pennsylvania that he will impose a 200-percent tariff on John Deere’s imports if the company follows through with its plan to move some of its production to Mexico.
In October, Deere announced they were laying off 287 workers. However, the company insists that those jobs were not being moved to Mexico.
Despite the layoffs and reports of declining sales, Deere & Company reported net income of $1.25 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024, which ended Oct. 27. The company 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.
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.
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