By  E. W. Lang

Barrel cheese tanked this week, down 32 cents at $1.50 per lb., that's 17 percent.  Barrels were down ten cents at $1.58 per lb.  Butter held at $1.94 per lb.

November Class III was $19.99 per cwt. on October 21 and today it's $17.79 per cwt.  December is $17.55 per cwt., then in January, Class III is almost $18 per cwt.   February, 2022, through December is $18.12 to $18.54 per cwt., and those months aren't down all that much from October 21.  Just sayin.

Class IV looks a little better with the nearby at $18.65 per cwt. and the next four months over $19 per cwt. 

A couple weeks ago I wrote a little bit about the John Deere workers' strike and how the timing was quite good in terms of labour shortages and the hot cash grain economy right now.  I further forecast that more service and health care workers would organize as time goes on.   I also shared what employers can do to workers if there is no counter strength like labour unions, and vice-versa. 

Well, the United Auto Workers/John Deere workers have now rejected a second tentative agreement, negotiated by UAW members and John Deere.  Here are some of the highlights that were rejected by a ten point margin.

Immediate 10% pay increase.  Eligibility for free health care after 30 days, with no co-payments or deductibles.  Thirty percent wage increases over the life of the six year contract, with adjustments for inflation every 90 days.  Lump sum, three percent salary bonuses every other year.   Two weeks paid parental leave at 100 percent.  Vision coverage, and a $8,500 ratification bonus.  This all starts at current wage rates that range from $20.11 per hour to $30.04 per hour.

I don't know how much union dues cost, but I'm guessing they are a good value that suddenly became a waste of money, based on the following complete pay and retirement package that union negotiators got, only to be rejected by the rank-and-file: 

https://uaw.org/.../10/DEERE-Summary-Revised-Final-bug.pdf

Let me share with you A Parable of the Pigs Who Became Hogs and Got Slaughtered.

International Harvester (IH) was a major farm implement company where a labour strike and subsequent contract agreement contributed to the sale of IH in 1984 as the farm economy turned south.  Former IH Chairman Fowler McCormick, incidentally, had a herd of Ayrshires. He was jettisoned from the Ayrshire Board of Directors for missing two director meetings.  So, also, went his financial benevolence to the breed.

Anyway, some years ago I edited an autobiography, "The Best I Can Do," by Marvin Pomerantz, who was President of IH Ag group in the early 80s.  He said there was no way to gain even a minor change to the labour contract that could extend the life of the company.  The last IH strike cost $600 million in 1979 money, and this was in an era when labour was both King and Court.  The union was swept clean six years later, just as unions were losing strength nationally and IH implement production stopped for good. 

Much was also the case at Maytag Appliance here in Iowa.  A labour agreement with a net cost of $44 per hour in 2006 was twice what their net labour cost was in Arkansas, for instance.  So the Iowa headquarters and giant factories closed as the workers would allow no concession of any kind in order to keep their jobs.

Remember, I'm not offering a wholesale condemnation of union activity, but in the 1970s, no one thought that International Harvester would end up in the archives of ag history.  I would be surprised if a majority of American workers feel the most recent John Deere vote was a rational one, as most working folk make less, particularly when legacy and other benefits are figured in.

I suspect the strikers' health benefits will be terminated soon.  Covered workers were eligible to keep that benefit for the first 10 days of a walkout.  That ended October 27, and John Deere continued to provide health coverage past that date as a sign of good faith.   John Deere's most recent statement sounds like their good faith has now run out.