SickShooter News

York Harley, an icon, remains
By BRENT BURKEY
Daily Record/Sunday News
Posted: 12/04/2009 03:48:27 PM EST

It might not pay as well as it once did.

It might not employ even half as many full-timers as now.

And the buildings where it made motorcycles for decades will likely end their runs.

But, York County's once-uncontested king of manufacturing will keep its imposing sign along Route 30, announcing Harley-Davidson Motor Company is there.

Harley-Davidson's board of directors voted Thursday to accept a union contract and keep its Softail and Touring motorcycle manufacturing operations in York County, where the company has assembled its motorcycles since the 1970s.

Workers approved the deal Wednesday -- but begrudgingly, as the new deal has concessions for workers from raises to health care to work rules.

It's been seven months of waiting in York County for the word "stay," almost assuredly mirrored in Shelbyville, Ky., by the waiting for the word "relocate."

"We enjoyed working with the Harley team," said Libby Adams, executive director of the Shelby County Industrial & Development Foundation in Kentucky, the finalist to get Harley if the company decided to move from Pennsylvania.

Work there included a lengthy rezoning process to get a large plot of land ready for Harley near Interstate 64 in Shelby County and talk of a special session of the legislature to approve Harley incentives.

However, that talk waned as Harley and its union in York County cut a deal for the new contract, and it waned further when Harley's workers ratified the deal.

"This
Advertisement
LetsEatPA.com
was not unexpected," Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said Thursday.

Changes ahead

Staying in York County means major changes for the operations happening from today and continuing into 2012.

Touring motorcycle manufacturing will be consolidated into the Softail plant, a roughly 6-year-old facility now marked for expansion, Harley spokesman Bob Klein said.

A decision will be made at a later date about the Touring facilities, which have a decades-long history of manufacturing bombs and other products.

The age and disjoined nature of the buildings was one reason Harley began calling its York operations inefficient.

The company will also cut its union work force that was once closer to 3,000 to about 1,000. About 700 to 800 of those workers would be full time, with another 200 to 300 falling into a category Harley calls "casual."

The term means the employees would work only as needed.

If such cuts come to pass, Harley could likely no longer be York County's largest manufacturing employer, instead possibly falling below West Manchester Township's BAE Systems and its roughly 1,800 workers.

Coping with the losses

Despite the lead-up and expectation of Harley staying, Bob Jensenius, executive vice president of the York County Chamber of Commerce, called Thursday's official news a "relief."

But he also said it comes with a lot of job losses, making it far from a purely happy day.

Jensenius said he's hopeful that with Harley's restructuring plan stretching for several years, job losses would come slowly enough to be absorbed more easily.

Also plagued, probably the most, with the conflicted feelings were Harley's workers, nearly half of whom voted for a contract that will likely lead to their own job losses, even if the company stays.

Workers mostly have said they voted "yes" for the deal because they felt they had no choice; Kentucky was waiting for all their jobs with a "no" vote.

"You can't be 100 percent happy unless you retain 100 percent of the jobs," Tom Santone, directing business representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 98, said after hearing the decision.

And while the cuts in the end might not be as severe as Harley has announced, a long-term issue with job losses will be Harley's plan to outsource noncore production work, leading to hundreds of job losses, he said.

Noncore production includes sub-assembly of parts, chrome plating and other work. Core work includes vehicle assembly, metal fabrication and painting.

Harley plans to turn noncore work over to its existing suppliers as part of making its operations more cost effective.

Once those operations are gone from Springettsbury Township, Santone said, it will be impossible for local laid-off employees to come back to those jobs if business improves.

Harley began its "two path" process in May by telling its workers in Springettsbury Township it might move to save costs.

It was told to a crowd already weary from the announcement of about 800 job reductions since spring 2008, as Harley's sales of its luxury recreation products sank as a barometer of the broader Great Recession of 2009.

As of December 2009, Harley's union workforce stood at 1,950, down from a peak of about 2,700 to 2,800 a few years ago.

Race for the plant

CEO Keith Wandell defended the possible relocation as not being retaliation for Harley's 2007 strike.

Wandell instead said the stay-or-move study was the result of years of letting problems at the local plants get out of hand, saying that when times were good, everyone assumed the issues would just work themselves out.

Harley's possible relocation whet appetites across the country.

The possible move put communities on pins and needles in five states, including Pennsylvania and the four original relocation sites of Shelbyville, Ky., Shelbyville, Ind., Murfreesboro, Tenn. and Kansas City, Mo.

Gov. Ed Rendell said his administration and other lawmakers took the job cuts into consideration when putting together a

$15.4 million incentives package to keep Harley in York County.

Rendell said Thursday the deal would have been $20 million if Harley would have agreed to keep intact more jobs instead of outsourcing work.

Rendell used that example to defend his incentives package to the hundreds of workers who are going to lose their jobs as a result of the restructuring.

Rendell also said that the land Harley will eventually not be using could be taken over by a York-area redevelopment group, the York County Industrial Development Authority.

It would be premature to discuss any such matters, said Darrell Auterson, president and CEO of the York County Economic Development Corp.

Auterson also said that praise was deserved for everyone from the community to the company and managers, to state and local officials and members of Harley's union.

And, he also said the community needs to rally around those who will lose jobs.

"There is a lot of work ahead of us," Auterson said.