Harley unions to vote on Wisconsin labor contract

Harley unions to vote on Wisconsin labor contract

Dinesh Ramde
Associated Press
September 12, 2010

MILWAUKEE - Harley-Davidson employees in Wisconsin are being asked to vote in favor of a labor contract that will freeze their pay, slash hundreds of jobs and hand large volumes of work to part-time workers.

As bleak as the proposal sounds, employees may have little choice but to accept it. If they don't, Harley-Davidson Motor Co. has threatened to move its last two Wisconsin operations to another state, leaving about 1,350 employees out of work.

Employees are scheduled to vote on the proposed seven-year contract Monday. The results should be available by the evening.

The Milwaukee-based motorcycle company blames its hardball tactics on finances. It says labor costs at its Milwaukee and Tomahawk plants are too high and it only makes sense to keep them open if the workers agree to labor concessions.

Tom Koltz, who has worked at the company for 22 years, doesn't buy that explanation. The 56-year-old from Cudahy acknowledged the tough economic climate but said Harley is turning its back on longtime loyal workers.

The company could have asked the union to help work out a fair compromise, he said. Instead, Harley is "putting the squeeze on us," said Koltz, a product-development mechanic. "This is a downright attempt to crush the union."

A number of items in the proposed contract — which the company called its lone and final offer — could give workers pause.

At least 200 jobs would be slashed in Milwaukee and about 75 jobs could be cut in Tomahawk in northern Wisconsin. The company could then bring in temporary, or "casual," workers, to work at about half the hourly rate and with virtually no benefits. Where a full-time production technician would make $30.50 per hour, a comparable casual worker would make $16.80 per hour.

Most long-term workers also would be subject to a seven-year wage freeze, although there are provisions for tentative raises in the final two years.

Even though workers may be disappointed by the contract, Harley's three unions have encouraged them to approve it — perhaps because they have little leverage.

Harley made no secret of the fact that it's been scouting out replacement facilities in other states. Harley spokesman Bob Klein has declined to say which sites — or how many — were under consideration, but after union officials revealed Kansas City, Mo., was a possibility, Klein confirmed it was one option.

Klein said depending on how the votes turn out, the company could decide its next steps as early as Tuesday.

Even if Harley moves one or both of its production facilities out of Wisconsin, its headquarters will stay in Milwaukee. That would be little consolation to displaced workers — and to the city of Milwaukee, which has embraced Harley-Davidson since its founders built their first motorcycle here 107 years ago.

This isn't the first time Harley has tried to extract steep concessions from workers. In December, the company and the union at its main motorcycle plant in York, Pa., agreed to a cost-cutting contract that involved layoffs for about half the company's unionized work force there.

The Milwaukee plant has about 1,070 active employees and makes motorcycle engines and transmissions. The Tomahawk plant's 275 active workers make windshields and other components.

Freeze pay, some layoffs, some work goes elsewhere or play the old worn out hard line union approach and end up with nothing in Wisconsin. The logical thing is obvious. Don't count on the union to do the logical.

Being competitive in any challenge means making adjustments. The unions have continued to handcuff business by making unreasonable demands and prohibiting that fair competition. Union members don't have much control on how their leadership represents them but their dues are continuously paid to support the leadership political affiliation (Democrats).

Bottom line; the leadership gets rich, the workers get laid off. But all we hear is screeching about corporate CEO's. Nothing on corrupt union leadership.

Amen!

And it is the union leadership that Obama has supported without stint... the union leadership get's rich while condemning their members to poverty due to their inflexible and unreasonable demands.

It is all so very sad, but these union members deserve what they get because they blindly follow their union leaders lead.

People where i worked hated the union. The only thing they liked about it was the pay was above normal. Obviously. That's one of the trademarks. But as a union shop, i hated it also. It was the first time i ever worked in a union shop. I wasn't impressed.