MOLINE, Ill. — A John Deere engine-production line shut down at the company's Dubuque, Iowa, plant in June.
“I knew it was coming, but nobody wanted to see it because of the quality of work we did out there,” said Jim Jones, a worker at the plant's engine department.
The Dubuque Works division had around 400 employees last year. The previous year, Deere & Co. announced the division would close; it later said the company would move engine production to Torreon, Mexico.
Thirty employees will continue to work on the crankshaft line until the end of the year, said Ken Golden, spokesman for the Dubuque Works plant.
Engine production employees will be trained for new jobs at Dubuque Works, Golden said. Also, the plant is getting new jobs through a new skid-steer loader line that is being moved from Loudon, Tenn., to the Dubuque factory. That line is expected to bring about 300 jobs to the plant.
