Strike affects Canadians[/align]Kuntz Electroplating in Ontario laid off 120 workers Thursday.[/align]
By SEAN ADKINS
Daily Record/Sunday News[/align]Article Launched:02/10/2007 02:47:45 AM EST[/align]
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· READERS' VIEWS · ABOUT THE COMPANY [/align]Feb 10, 2007 — The ripple effects of the Harley-Davidson union workers' strike has crossed the Canadian border.
Kuntz Electroplating Inc. in Kitchener, Ontario, temporarily laid off 120 people Thursday from its division that polishes and chrome-plates Harley-Davidson parts, said Dave Germann, vice president of human resources.
About a third of Kuntz's total output is Harley-related, he said. The company employs 600 workers. After the strike began, Harley suspended the production of its Softail and Touring lines.
Harley's Menomonee Falls plant in Wisconsin manufactures the engines, and the plant in Springettsbury Township assembles the motorcycles.
"It's a setback in our forecast, as it is for Harley," Germann said. "The workers are very frustrated, and it's very upsetting to go through this."
A company whose main business is to chrome-plate and polish metal parts shipped to automotive plants, Kuntz started its work for Harley about four years ago.
Since that time, Harley has become a large part of Kuntz's diversification plan as a way for its chrome-plating and polishing business not to hinge solely on the automotive industry.
On Feb. 1, the day the majority of 2,800 hourly employees represented by the International Association of Machinists Aerospace Workers Local 175 voted to strike, Kuntz Electroplating instituted a new plan. A contingency plan.
The next Monday, Lisa Keefe, 36, arrived to her job as robot operator at Kuntz Electroplating.
Company officials spoke to Keefe and others who man the plant's Harley division. "We came in, and they said all we can do is wait," she said. "They warned us Monday that if (the strike) was not settled we could be laid off."
By Thursday, Keefe and 119 of her fellow employees were without jobs.
"Knowing that this strike is only temporary, we fully anticipate to carry on after the strike and to grow with Harley," Germann said.
But the clock is ticking.
The layoffs at Kuntz will remain temporary for the next 26 weeks, Germann said.
After that, depending on the status of the Harley workers' strike, the company will either bring back its employees or make the layoffs permanent, he said.
In the interim, Keefe said she will apply for unemployment benefits and dip into her savings originally earmarked for home renovations.
Despite the layoffs, Keefe said she supports the Harley workers' strike.
"I would tell the Harley workers to stick to your guns," she said. "You deserve everything you're asking for. I would love to get back to work, but not if someone is going to suffer for it. I believe in unions, they fight for our workers. If you give up and say 'screw the unions,' the company will step all over you."
Kim Hockensmith, an assembler at the Harley plant in Springettsbury Township, said the Harley strike will affect many companies.
"As long as (Harley-Davidson) holds out, it will get worse," she said. "I would say to (the laid-off Kuntz workers) to just hold on. It has to come to an end soon."
For now, Keefe will simply wait until Kuntz calls its workers back to their jobs.
"When Harley hurts, we hurt," she said.[
Latest on the strike I could find
