Posted on 01/31/2007 12:41:44 PM PST by nowings
Jan 31, 2007 — About 98 percent of Harley's nearly 2,800 unionized workers have voted to strike. The contract expires at 12:01 a.m. Friday, and picketing will begin at that time, union representatives said.
Discussions on the proposed labor contract began at 9 a.m. today in the Toyota Arena at the York Expo Center, where the members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 175 met.
I think Harley is trying to avoid the troubles that have overwhelmed the US auto industry by keeping their manufacturing costs from getting out of control. I'm sure that seems unpleasant to the workers but Harley almost went out of business back in the 80s until Reagan helped out.
OK. Then how'd we get there?
Admit it - I know it hurts - but without the early unions we would not have the wages and benefits we enjoy from working today. We'd be slugging away at slave wages. History has proven that out.
Look - HD made a ton of money last year. They have no financial problems. Why screw the workers? Answer me that.
For the record - I AM NOT A UNION WORKER.
PA IS a RTW state.
A strike? REALLY !!!???
Finally, some peace and quiet ;)
Unions are socialistic in nature and go against the principles America was founded on.
Ok, and they need to exist today because ......
I am well aware of the HD issues in the 80's and earlier. Whose fault was it that the bikes were primitive designs w/ all the problems that comes with it.
They upscaled the designs - reworked the engines - gave them decent brakes, etc. And now they sell the heck out of them.
Don't forget the Japs were dumping bikes on this market for well below cost to manufacture.
When my 1990 was made - HD made about 30k big twin motorcycles. Look how many they put out now. I think I saw it was about 400k of them.
unions were fine 100 years ago- they were even necessary. they're a totally different entity today.
"IMO Harley should make a technologically advanced bike that people can afford, rather than the overweight, underpowered and overpriced sow they make today."
Huh. Yeah, right. I don't think Harley has the ability to make an affordable technologically advanced bike. The Japanese have that end of the market sewn up. The Europeans have the high-end of the technologically advanced bike market. Harley has been too busy making and selling as many retro-bikes as it can to people who like that sort of thing. I don't know how long the demand will keep up - there are only so many middle-aged doctors, lawyers and accountants who can afford the things. The largest part of their fan base can hardly afford them. Oh, they have got the V-Rod - a decent if somewhat heavy engine (which they had to get Porsche to develop for them). But most of the Harley types aren't interested in that sort of bike. But it appears likely that Harley (and others) will not be able to continue meeting emissions requirements with their big air-cooled engines forever. What then?
I'd like to read up on that. Do you have a source?
"Made in China" doesn't matter.
Technology doesn't matter.
Value doesn't matter.
Safety doesn't matter.
Performance doesn't matter.
What matters is IMAGE. Period.
And I've seen the pictures on the www from the Bike Weeks in Daytona and Myrtle Beach. I viewed them with utter disdain.
With that said...happy ridin'.
"Don't forget the Japs were dumping bikes on this market for well below cost to manufacture"
Yeah, for about two years in the early/mid 80s, after a recession caused the bike market to collapse, and also the value of the Yen to collapse. They were "dumping" unsold stock for whatever they could get for it. Nevermind that they hardly even built anything directly competitive with Harley at that time. Certainly to claim that the Japanese were trying to drive H-D out of business with this tactic is ridiculous, because H-D was no threat to anyone at the time.
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