A combined 319 salaried workers at John Deere World Headquarters in Moline and John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline were among the mass, permanent layoffs of nonproduction workers last week by the Moline-based global equipment maker.
That’s according to a pair of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) letters sent to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, that were shared by the DCEO with the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal late Friday, July 26.
Specifically the World Headquarters WARN letter said that 298 workers are impacted by the salaried workforce reduction at the global headquarters at One John Deere Place, Moline. The list of positions impacted included managers, supervisors, engineers, analysts, attorneys and more. The notice put total employment at Deere’s World Headquarters at 1,993.
Deere also wrote in a separate WARN letter last week that 21 salaried employees were laid off on Wednesday, July 24, at Harvester Works. Total employment at the East Moline plant now is 2,192 employees, the WARN notice said.
Those Harvester Works layoffs were in addition to the 279 production worker layoffs announced previously for the East Moline location. They will be effective on Aug. 30.
Employees impacted globally were notified by the company last week of those permanent layoff. Among them, according to the State of Iowa WARN website, were a total of 170 employees who were permanently and immediately laid off at three of Deere’s Iowa locations: Waterloo, Dubuque and Johnston. The Illinois Quad Cities cuts occurred around the same time.
Size, scope cuts unknown
Little continues to be known however about the overall size and scope of the cuts that are impacting workers in Illinois and Iowa and other Deere hometowns across the globe.
In response to a request today, July 29, for additional comments about the layoffs – including the total number worldwide and whether more are expected in the near future – Deere referred the QCBJ to the statement it released on Wednesday, July 24.
In that public comment, Deere said it was forced “to make tough decisions including layoffs at John Deere production facilities and reductions in our global salaried workforce.”
The statement said, ”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.”
The company also said that it would offer affected salaried employees in the U.S. up to 12 months of severance pay based on years of service; pro-rated short term incentive and long-term incentive cash compensation benefits, payment of any earned and unused vacation or paid time off; and access to ongoing health and wellness benefits; and 12 months of professional job placement services.
Deere’s statement concluded, “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.”
