A Deere news release said production and maintenance employees at 12 facilities in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas rejected the agreement, while employees at Deere parts facilities in Denver and Atlanta voted in favor of a separate agreement with identical terms.
Deere spokeswoman Jennifer A. Hartmann could not be immediately reached for further information.
A tentative agreement announced Monday would have created a new employer contribution of 5% of an employee's annual wages, increased the matching contribution to 100% of employee contributions of up to 6% of wages for 2022, and then afterward matched between 70% and 100% of employee contributions of up to 6% of wages, depending on company profits, according to a summary of terms.
Current employees hired after Oct. 1, 1997, and future employees would have the choice of entering the Deere & Co. hybrid defined benefit/defined contribution plan or the newly enhanced 401(k) plan, the summary said. The summary of the tentative agreement did not provide further information on the nature of the future employees.
According to Deere's most recent 11-K filing for its John Deere Tax Deferred Savings Plan for Wage Employees, as of Oct. 31, 2020, the company provides a matching contribution to employees of generally equal to 60% of employee contributions of up to 6% of wages for employees hired on or after Oct. 1, 1997.
Exceptions are 50% for employees at John Deere Horicon Works in Wisconsin hired before Oct. 1, 1998; 65% for employees at John Deere Horicon Works hired on or after Oct. 1, 1998; and 75% for John Deere Commercial Products employees. No stand-alone contribution is mentioned in the 11-K filing.
As of Oct. 31, 2020, the John Deere Tax Deferred Savings Plan for Wage Employees had $1.1 billion in assets.
