Harley Davidson workers vote on labor deal that would freeze pay, cut 100s of Wisconsin jobs

Wis. Harley workers putting labor contract to vote

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Hundreds of Harley-Davidson workers were gathered in Wisconsin on Monday to vote on a proposed seven-year contract that includes concessions including freezing their pay, slashing hundreds of jobs and assigning large volumes of work to nonunion workers.

Some union members outside the Waukesha County Exposition Center, where the vote was taking place, expressed anger over the motorcycle maker’s contract demands. Harley-Davidson Inc. executives say they will move production out of Wisconsin if the contract is rejected. That would eliminate about 1,350 jobs.

Union member Greg Voelzke, 52, said he has worked for Harley-Davidson for 22 years. Voelzke said he voted against the contract because there are no guarantees the company would stay, even with concessions.

“We came to battle today, not for victory, but to fight another day,” Voelzke said. He said he did not want to support a contract that offered so little and that he would take his chances the company will renegotiate the deal, even though Harley has said it will not.

“For Sale” signs hung on about a dozen of the approximate 100 Harley motorcycles parked outside the center.

The workers make motorcycle engines in Milwaukee and windshields and other components in the northern Wisconsin city of Tomahawk. Harley’s three unions have encouraged workers to approve the deal, perhaps because they have little leverage. Results of the vote could be known Monday.

The company says labor costs in Wisconsin are so high that it’s only feasible to keep the plants open if workers agree to concessions.

Chief Executive Keith Wandell has urged Wisconsin employees to approve the unpopular contract, which the company called its lone and final offer. He wrote a letter last week telling the workers it’s up to them to decide whether they want to remain part of Harley’s future.

“We are on a course to build a competitive company for the future and a business that is sustainable long term,” the letter said. “Nothing can get in the way of this objective.”

Tom Koltz, who has worked at the company for 22 years, acknowledges 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, 56, a product-development mechanic from Cudahy. “This is a downright attempt to crush the union.”

Under the proposed contract, at least 200 jobs would be slashed in Milwaukee and about 75 jobs could be cut in Tomahawk. The company could then bring in temporary, or “casual,” workers, to work at about half the hourly rate and with almost 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 will be subject to a seven-year wage freeze, although there are provisions for tentative raises in the final two years.

Harley made no secret of the fact that it’s been scouting out replacement facilities in other states. 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.

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, 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.

Online:

Harley-Davidson: www.harley-davidson.com/