A five-week strike at Deere & Company that affected 14 facilities in Iowa and Illinois will end after the approval of a contract on Wednesday.
The six-year contract was approved after workers voted down two previous agreements with the company. The new contract raises wages and makes the company's performance pay more generous.
Chuck Browning, the director of the union, said that the contract set a new standard for workers not only in the U.A.W. but throughout the country.
John C. May, Deere's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement: "I'm pleased our highly skilled employees are back to work building and supporting the industry-leading products which make our customers more profitable and sustainable."
Workers can earn 20 percent more than their base pay if they hit productivity targets, according to a union spokesman.
Wage increases of 10 percent this year and 5 percent in each of the next two years are the same as the proposal workers rejected in November.
Current workers have a traditional pension, but the union omitted new hires from the initial agreement and established a post-retirement health care fund.
The second agreement between Deere and the U.A.W. was rejected by 55 percent of workers, with some complaining that the wage increases were too small at a company that expected to earn $6 billion this fiscal year. Others said the company's targets were too difficult for many employees to reach.
Matt Pickrell, a long time worker at John Deere in Ottumwa, Iowa, said that some workers were stuck in jobs that were hard to earn performance pay.
Mr. Pickrell said that he had the ability to get a different assignment, but that more junior workers didn't have that option.
Mr. Pickrell said that it was creating another tier, referring to a compensation system in which workers with less experience are paid less.
Mr. Pickrell said that the union negotiating team told workers in Ottumwa on Wednesday that the company had pledged to adjust the performance plan to better account for circumstances beyond a worker's control.
Deere said that it had no plans to return to the bargaining table after workers rejected the second agreement. The two sides reached a third agreement on Friday, which proposed changes to the incentive plan.
The strike was part of an increase in work stoppages in October, but some employers have avoided large strikes by negotiating last-minute agreements with unions.
The strength of the bargaining position of the workers was reflected in their willingness to vote down two proposals with significant wage gains.
Larry Cohen, a former president of the Communications Workers of America, said in an interview this month that he was skeptical that Deere was able to avoid a major impact on production.
He said that this reflected the advantage enjoyed by workers who bargain on a companywide basis, similar to an approach that is common in Europe and South America.
Mr. Cohen said there was an opportunity to push this as far as possible because the risks were low.
Some workers were worried that public opinion would turn against them if they walked away from the contract.
Chris Laursen, a Deere worker in Ottumwa who opposed the initial agreement just before the second vote, asked what it would look like to the public if they turned it down.
Mr. Laursen said it was a good win for the American labor movement. Hopefully it will help workers.
