Deere & Co Granted Temporary Injunction Against Striking Union Members
A judge in Iowa has granted the world’s largest farm equipment maker, Deere & Co, a temporary injunction against striking union members who have been trespassing on the company’s grounds and blocking off its entrances and exits.
Last week, over 10,000 Deere & Co workers went on strike in what marks the first major walkout at the company in more than three decades. The overwhelming majority of the union rejected a contract offer that would have delivered raises of 5% to some workers and 6% to others.
Several workers began forming a picket line outside the company’s Milan plant in Western Illinois 15 minutes after the strike deadline. Workers also began picketing at several other Deere & Co plants, including the company’s largest operation in Waterloo, Iowa.
Marlita Grave, Chief District Judge of Iowa’s Seventh Judicial District, called the union workers’ activities “unwarranted, impermissible and unlawful.”
The injunction does not entirely forbid the strike, but the judge has limited the number of picketers to no more than four at each of the facility’s gates. In a statement, Deere & Co says that the injunction was put in place to ensure safe entry and exit to the facility.
