imposed new tariffs on Chinese products and the supply chain unraveled.
But that strategy sputtered when the U.S.
GERLOCK: LeRoy says large strikes are rare these days at manufacturers like Deere, which for decades outsourced jobs. Now it is rapidly shifting in their favor. LEROY: It's a reverse dynamic of what happened in the 1980s, where the power dynamic rapidly shifted against unions and workers. GERLOCK: That's Michael LeRoy, who teaches labor relations at the University of Illinois. MICHAEL LEROY: What's going on is unions are relevant again. And workers say they're holding out for a larger share of the company's success. Deere is on pace to make record profits of nearly $6 billion in 2021. That deal would have raised wages at least 5%, with lower-paid positions like painters earning about $20 an hour, but it would have put new hires into a less generous retirement system. The union has instructed workers not to give interviews, but they sent a clear message recently when 90% voted against Deere's latest proposed contract. In all, more than 10,000 union members are on strike in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas. GERLOCK: This scene in Ankeny, where John Deere makes farm sprayers that can sell for $400,000, is also playing out at the tractor plant in Waterloo and the factory that makes bulldozers in Dubuque. And I just wanted to help pay it forward. We would have - stop at the Union Hall to have food, that kind of stuff. She remembers people helping her parents when her dad was on strike at a Maytag plant. GERLOCK: Supporters like Nora Thomas stop to share food and drinks with people on the picket line. Some wave down cars speeding down the street for honks of support. They're carrying signs that say, UAW on strike. About a dozen union members and supporters pace the crosswalk at one of the main roads into the plant. GRANT GERLOCK, BYLINE: Workers at the John Deere factory in Ankeny, Iowa, are off the production floor and on the picket line. Iowa Public Radio's Grant Gerlock reports the strike is happening as labor unions see themselves in a stronger bargaining position. The company's slogan is nothing runs like a Deere, except that right now, very little is running at their Midwest factories, where production is on hold because workers are on strike. John Deere is one of the world's largest makers of farming and construction equipment.