Posted on 07/08/2014 4:39:20 PM PDT by upchuck
Maybe it’s time we re-think what a proud American brand the Harley Davidson motorcycle company is. Not too long ago I told you about the man whose warranty claim was rejected by the company because he was flying an American flag on his bike. And who can forget their new addition of an all-electric motorcycle (seriously?) But those things pale in comparison to a story I just found: Harley Davidson uses the services of a company that helps them replace fairly paid American employees with cheap foreign-born workers through the H-1B visa program.
The LA Daily News tells us about Kelly Parker, a divorced mother of three, who landed her dream job at Harley Davidson in tech support. That dream turned into a nightmare when she was laid off less than a year later, replaced by an H-1B “guest worker” from India. The biggest indignation: Parker had to train her replacement before she was fired.
The company that helped Kelly Parker to the unemployment line is the India-based Infosys Ltd. What they do is help companies like Harley Davidson ditch their American workers in favor of lower cost Asians and Indians. They do this through the H-1B visa program, which allows foreigners special access to America if they can fill jobs that no American is capable of or willing to do.
Of course, the H-1B program has been completely abused by companies that want to cut labor costs. Instead of shipping jobs overseas, they bring overseas here to take American jobs. Different scheme; same results. Americans lose jobs.
The H-1B program is supposed to be for filling skilled and tech jobs, but what this government created clusterf**k really does is get Americans fired and keep them from ever getting hired in the first place. Companies do not have to prove that there are no Americans available for a given position, and, as we’ve seen with Kelly Parker, are perfectly within their rights to can an American that already holds a position.
Hey, Obama was right. The immigration system is broken and badly in need of repair. However, the problem isn’t that we aren’t letting millions of illegal aliens become citizens, it’s that even with legal immigration Americans are getting screwed.
It should be noted that Obama and the democrats are not only pushing amnesty, but also a massive expansion of the H-1B program, which will put even more Americans out of work.
This is how messed up things currently are: no one even keeps statistics on how many H-1B workers there are in the US. The best estimates put the number at around 600,000. Let that sink in for a moment. Well over a half a million mostly skilled and high-tech jobs are occupied by foreigners while a record number of Americans can’t find work. And Obama wants to expand this? What an a$$hole.
So while the federal government and apparently Harley Davidson are working against the interests of American workers, Kelly Parker is doing something uniquely American: she is fighting back. She has joined a federal lawsuit that claims in part that Infosys Ltd. has discriminated against workers based on their country of origin by replacing Americans with foreigners. I hope like hell the lawsuit succeeds. It won’t end the H-1B visa scam, but it might make companies a little more reluctant to abuse the program.
So Harley Davidson is just like any other corporation where the bottom line is the only important thing. They are not unique is this cold heartless approach to running a business. However, Harley sells itself as a brand that represents freedom and the American way. I guess now we all know that’s just an image cooked up by some ad agency, because their recent actions tell a different story.
Extremely common in high tech, and your severance benefits are linked to your compliance. A foul, perverted practice liberals exult in from inside their corporate hives. Liberalism is not for the weak stomached - they eat their own, slowly, to keep each other in terrified obedience to the group.
And then after years of perfect compliance, they eat you anyway. And why?
Because if they didn't, people might think there was a way to stay safe. Can't have that.
In 2007, the H-D Plant was struck and shut down for weeks, over a two-tier wage system mgmt wanted in place for new hires (lower wages/benefits) and established-tenure employees (higher wages/benefits).
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/feb/2/20070202-100151-5155r/
By 2012, massive change had come: half the facility had been removed and the land is still for sale for industrial use.
Half the employees are gone into other plants — Indian, other H-D locations, early buy-outs and retirements, other mfgrs — but the plant is much more efficient and quality is markedly up, to customers’ delight and industry reviews.
The unions were shown to be what they’ve been good at: delays, problems, line shutdowns, parts shortages, poor pre-planning etc.
Mgmt is in charge of all physical campuses, inventory, marketing, sales, all decisions and they’ve solidified their grip on the corporate QC, and have edged the unions into a well-lit corner, to keep an eye on them.
The mgmt investment to date simply won’t allow second rate H1B-Visa immigrants to ruin what’s in-place and functioning superbly, and which model is being exported to all of H-Ds other operations.
http://www.jsonline.com/business/harley-plant-undergoes-whirlwind-of-change-vc4srit-146568165.html
While not a pleasant alternative, HD mgmt has shown that they can replace all union personnel and still turn out quality product, after adequate training, and other plants’ workers are brought in to work and supervise the low-tier hires.
Whether it’ll happen is another matter.
It won’t?
I no longer have any inside friends or mgmt contacts at the plant; they’re retired or relocated and I haven’t made any new efforts to re-establish. With pay and benefit cuts, and downscaling, while demands for high production and quality levels increase at the monthly mgmt/union meetings, many workers are not happy, as ‘intimated’ in the trade media. The local fishwrap always paint a brighter picture, fearing another major industrial loss like CAT, back in 1998, losing 3,500 jobs. I don’t know much more than what I hear, either from ex-workers or the occasional relative of a current employee. I take what I hear with a grain of salt, with no inside track on info, anymore.
Your company comes to you and offers a very generous "Exit" bonus of money and benefits. In return you have to train your replacement. Or, you can take your chances with a much lesser amount from unemployment. What will you do?
Preparing my flame proof suit...
Harley has always been and will always remain unreliable junk.
Said it and meant it.
I agree, it smells off.
There is irony, but in many ways, the Japanese embraced many American ideas as we discarded them. Toyota and Honda accounted for 5 of the top 10 American-built cars with more than 75 percent American content in 2012.
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