John Deere's closure of facilities has affected many Corn Belt communities in Illinois and Iowa. CNH Industrial and Bridgestone-Firestone Ag have added to the list of closed plants.
Deere has laid off employees this year at facilities in Ankeny, Iowa, followed by facilities in Urbandale, Waterloo and Moline, Illinois.
According to the Iowa Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice, Deere has laid off 774 employees in Iowa alone this year, from its 70,000-strong nationwide workforce.
On June 5, tire producer Bridgestone-Firestone Ag announced layoffs of 118 employees in Des Moines, Iowa, due to low demand for truck and bus tires across continents.
It's easy to be "in the know" about agriculture news from coast to coast! Sign up for a FREE month of Agri-Pulse news. Simply click here.
CNH Industrial, the producer of Case New Holland tractors, laid off 25% of its workforce in April – more than 200 employees. This sparked job safety criticism from U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin , D-Wis., regarding the Racine County, Wisconsin plant.
The factory is being relocated to Mexico, prompting Baldwin to write Scott Wine, CNH chief executive officer, “Moving production to Mexico as you are considering would not only be a slap in the face to the workers who have given so much, it would destroy the institutional knowledge that your workforce has developed over decades of building agricultural equipment.”
Total farm tractor sales in the U.S. are down 10.4% since May 2023, according to the monthly tractor sales report from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. Some attribute the decline to high interest rates, low commodity prices and companies' plans for a quieter sales period.
For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com.
.png?1716326054)
