John Deere lays off 150 manufacturing workers in East Moline

Insider says more manufacturing layoffs coming for the Illinois stalwart.

John Deere announced indefinite layoffs on Aug. 31 for 150 Illinois manufacturing workers amid a disturbing trend of mass layoffs in the state this summer. The company will also lay off 30 workers in Davenport, Iowa.

The Illinois workers affected are employed at Deere’s Harvester Works facilities, a 90-acre complex in East Moline where the company manufactures combines. In July, the company laid off 160 employees at John Deere Seeding in Moline, Illinois.

One former John Deere worker who requested anonymity told the Illinois Policy Institute to expect more John Deere layoffs for Illinoisans in coming months.

The John Deere news comes less than a week after Caterpillar, another legacy Illinois manufacturer, announced plans to lay off 300 employees in the Peoria area.

“Deere continues to adjust the size of our manufacturing workforce at individual factories in response to market demand for products,” John Deere Spokesman Ken Golden told WQAD.

Lagging demand and a toxic state business climate for Illinois manufacturing is not mixing well for a variety of industrial businesses that have left for greener pastures in recent months.

Hoist Liftruck, Mondelez International and DE-STA-CO are just three manufacturers that have chosen to leave Illinois and invest elsewhere since July. Hoist in East Chicago, Indiana, DE-STA-CO in Nashville, Tennessee, and Mondelez in Mexico, where it will no longer be subject to inane U.S. sugar tariffs.

Illinois manufacturers are struggling under a broken workers’ compensation system, hostile lawsuit climate and sky-high, volatile property taxes. Illinoisans should expect continuing industrial flight until the General Assembly takes action to fix all three.