(Reuters) – A majority of Deere & Co workers voted against a six-year labor contract that was tentatively agreed with the United Auto Workers (UAW) earlier this month, the U.S. tractor maker said on Sunday.
The deal over wages and employee benefits would have covered about 10,000 employees across 14 facilities in Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas.
“John Deere remains fully committed to continuing the collective bargaining process,” the company said, adding that operations would continue as normal.
The agreement reached by UAW and John Deere on Oct. 1 was rejected by “90% of the membership”, UAW Vice President Chuck Browning said in a separate statement.
A strike deadline has been set at the end of Wednesday, he said.
The contract had included significant economic gains and offered the highest quality healthcare benefits in the industry, Browning had said earlier this month.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
