DUBUQUE – John Deere is raking in huge profits and paying its CEO tens-of-millions of dollars while firing hundreds of Iowa workers today even as production ramps up in Mexico.
310 Iowa workers at John Deere plants in Dubuque and Davenport are out of jobs today, according to Iowa’s WARN Notification List. This is 211 workers in Davenport and 99 in Dubuque. Employees were allegedly notified in June.
According to company reports, John Deere raked in $1.734 billion in their third quarter net income. Deere paid its CEO John C. May $26.7 million in total compensation in 2023, a raise from $20.3 million in 2022.
The firings and massive payouts to the top executive come on the heels of Deere announcing new production on Mexico that was expected to be operational this year.
Yahoo reported, “A Deere representative told Industrial Equipment News (IEN) on June 11 that ‘unrelated to the (Iowa) layoffs’, the company is shifting some production from its Dubuque facility to the new one they are building in Ramos, Mexico, a roughly three-and-a-half-hour drive to the Texas border.”
