Feature Tractor
This year the feature tractor brand is "Minneapolis-Moline" was a large tractor and farm and industrial machinery producer based in Minneapolis and Hopkins, Minnesota, Minnesota known for its Minneapolis-Moline tractor line. It was the product of a merger of three companies in 1929: Minneapolis Steel & Machinery (MSM) which was noted for its Twin City tractors, Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company (MTM) which also produced Minneapolis tractors, and the Moline Implement Company formerly known as the Moline Plow Company. It had manufacturing facilities on Lake Street at Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis, MN, in Hopkins, MN and in Moline, IL. Originally known as the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company, and later shortened Minneapolis-Moline Company. Motec Industries was a short lived corporate name change from ca. 1960 until the companies acquisition by White Motor Corporation in 1963.
Labor
MSM, the largest of the merged companies, had been a leader in the anti–labor union (open shop) movement. It was a member of the Citizen's Alliance (CA), a powerful Minneapolis business league that kept the city largely union free for over 20 years. During World War I, the unions agreed to not strike to aid the war effort, in exchange the National War Labor Board ordered wage hikes for workers. MSM refused, starting a court battle that would not be fully resolved until the 1940s.
Minneapolis-Moline inherited MSM's CA membership and attitude. However, it signed a contract with the AFL Machinists Union in 1935, during the Flour City Ornamental Iron strike and after the 1934 Teamster's Strikes, both of which were notable for their violence. This was a notable defection that foreshadowed the collapse of the open-shop movement in Minneapolis. However, this did not mean peaceful labor relations in the years to come. After World War II, the company would have to deal with strikes and pension disputes.
Acquisition of BF Avery
In 1951 Minneapolis-Moline acquired the BF Avery & Sons farm equipment company.
1963 acquisition by White
Motec was acquired in 1963 by the White Motor Company who also owned the Oliver brand. The purchase also included the workers pension fund which White absorbed as an asset and hundreds lost all of their pension contributions plus the matching amounts. The Minneapolis-Moline brand name was dropped by White in 1974, six years before White folded. AGCO purchased White in 1991 and produced tractors under the latter's name until 2001. The Hopkins headquarters site has been redeveloped, and is now the location for a Honda automobile dealership. The Minneapolis Hiawatha Avenue site has been developed as a shopping mall, anchored by a Target store and a Cub (SuperValu) grocery store.
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References: History of Minneapolis-Moline was taken from Wikipedia