News Analysis Roughly 10,000 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have been on strike against Deere & Company, the parent company of farm and construction equipment maker John Deere, since midnight on Oct. 14. The strike is the largest of the pandemic era and also the largest private-sector walkout since the UAW’s action against General Motors in 2019. Here are five key considerations to help understand how the strike began and how it could possibly end. Genesis of the Conflict The strike against Deere is the first labor action against the company in 35 years and shuts down shuts operations at 11 factories in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas, plus three distribution centers in Colorado, Georgia and Illinois. The UAW and Deere negotiated a contract that would have raised the base pay of union members by up to 6 percent plus additional wage hikes totaling approximately 20 percent trover the coming six years. …