Nearly 2,800 union workers walked off the job Friday at Harley-Davidson Inc.’s largest manufacturing plant, with small groups quietly picketing each entrance of the York facility.
The workers said they were prepared to stay on the picket lines for as long as it took to win a better contract than a company proposal they overwhelmingly rejected two days ago.
More than 50 workers gathered as the strike began at midnight, said Tom Boger, a union representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 175. Fifty members at a time were scheduled to picket throughout the day in three-hour shifts.
The company installed cement barricades to block access to all gates, even empty parking lots, Boger said.
The union voted Wednesday to authorize a strike after rejecting the companys contract offer, which would have reduced pay rates for new hires, required employees to pay part of their health insurance premiums and forced pension concessions.
Read more: International Herald Tribune
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as a union worker myself i am glad for them to stand up for their rights, as family man with a wife and three kids a wage increse would be nice, however i will be sad if Harley-Davidson raises the prices of their allready high price bikes puting them out of the reach of the worker who are buliding them
It was only a few months ago that H-D attempted to strong-arm the union in Milwaukee by threatening to build a new plant outside of Wisconsin if the union did not approve wage concessions. This on the heels of record revenue and profit announcements.
Harley seems to be heading down the same arrogant and greedy road that did them in the last time. Some people never learn…
Let’s face it, almost everything in the Harley Stores is made in China or Taiwan with extraordinary mark ups…and so are a lot of Harley parts.
Harley’s ‘crew’ on American soil should be well paid when the Company is making record profits.
Harley better keep that American crew as when that bike becomes total rice, a lot of Veterans and other Patriots who want ‘American made’MC’s aren’t going to ride them anymore…including me and my husband.
I have a 2000 HD Road King Trike (DFT Smoothie), and his is a 2003 Road King. We had to replace most of the stock chrome because it bubbled and pitted in no time. Bought new from Custom Chrome and it still shines like a mirror.
Selling cheap stuff for high dollars, and cheating those who make the bikes out of wages and benefits is just wrong.
Harley Davidson seems to be ’slow learners’.
Nothing will change regarding price or quality unless more people buy something else.
Since we don’t know what the employess make now, it is hard to say if they make “enough”.
Paying part of your own health coverage is not going away and entry level positions pay less because the employee is not worth much, thus the term “entry level”.
Employees should be paid based on how well they do their jobs but that is hard to do in a union, who’s job it is to get the most for the most, increase members and get more dues.
After saying all that, forcing pension concessions, retroactively when someone has planned based on the previous agreement, is pure evil. If that is what is happening, Harley should be ashamed.
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