That is too bad and your disappointment is understandable.
I can only speak for my local and if someone is slacking it hurts all the members. I can tell you this as well, if somebody is slacking it isn't only management that will be after the slacker. Bums get bounced regardless of seniority here.

 

After reading all this I thought I would chime in. After being downsized a few years ago, I become one of the TEMP workers at Harley. I was in the first wave that the company managed to hire. We took a very grueling test that lasted 5 hours in all. Mental, Physical, ****, and probe. After getting hired I thought my job would be wonderful based on the experience. Harley had a great reputation for being a place to work.
My first night. Yes night, 10 hours 3rd shift I put tries on rims, and watched as the Harley hourly workers slept and walked the shop floor to socialize. Very weird I thought. They complained about us casuals but did nothing to boost their way to stay employed. One guy put tires on rims for 27 years. I was called a scab but when a worker got in my face to call me out, I told him I will see him on the unemplyment line in a year, and he will be in my position wanting only to put food on my table. We agreed to disagree and now he is no longer there either.
I did make friends in my 10 months working there and do feel sorry for those loosing their jobs, but hey I was making $16.50 and hour doing the same job next to a guy making more than double my rate. That is why they are being left go. $35.00 an hour to put pieces on bikes, come on, thats just crazy.
Yes I had to join the union who in my opinion screwed the worker. They signed a contract which basically gave the company full contol. The union was powerless. However they still wanted the dues every paycheck with me getting no representation because I was a casual worker still having to pay dues.
By the way I worked over 40 hours per week sometimes 70 with NO additional compensation beyond time and a half. No paid holidays, no vacation, no medical. Nothing but a wage for the hour. I was happy to get it because my family was hungry.

I have since moved on to better things, I thank Harley daily for keeping us in food and clothing, but it was the worst place I have ever worked in 35 years. It is run like a prison, with a new bike rolling in front of you every 86 seconds. Doing a mundain job the same day in and day out. Gentlemen, its easy for them to hire bodies for these jobs. The job is taught for 10 minutes and they set you free on the line. Cant be to hard right? any monkey can do it right? well that is correct any monkey can do it, but doing it day in and day out doing the same thing everyday will make you crazy. To that they require you to work 3rd shift one week and 1st shift the next. some weeks 3rd and some weeks 1st. It was grulling. I never knew from week to week when I would be working because I had to call in for my schedule every Friday.
However like I said, they paid me for an hour worked and that helped me and my family. I do not veiw Harley as I once did as the compnay to work for and I feel the bikes as built past the 2008 models are no very well built. The hay day of Harley is gone and one day they will be built off shore. The model is cast and the company is all about profitability. However I think the parts being installed are sub par at best.
Just my .02 cents

 

Same exact **** went on in the auto plant I worked at here in Cal. except the wages on both sides where a lot lower to start , nobody made $36hr . Maint. only hit$34 top tier in tool & die dept. and line workers $26 . The temps came in at $13 and topped out at $17 . Management salaries where a close guarded thing but first level whip crackers started around $76,000 and we had couple hundred of them .

Saddest part of the whole thing nation wide is this is the coming labor model all large non family owned companies are targeting , country sucks anymore but there no better place to be and that is dismal thought .

 

They'll just keep putting cheaper parts on the bike until it's downright dangerous, to keep the CEO's pay and stock prices up. That'a all that matters.

 

And with 100,000 new people entering the work force every month, desperate for any work (High School grads, college grads, even MBAs and PHDs,) there's certainly no pressure to push wages anywhere but down.

 

Litigation
Regulation
Taxation
Unionization

In those orders, why would you want to do business in the U.S.A.

You can go anywhere else in the world and get less red tape, and then sell your crap back to the U.S., Our government will even subsidize company's to leave. Our government will subsidize american based companys with Illegal alliens, and legal alliens with H1b visa's.

You know what products our country are know for around the world now is: Debt, Scrap metal, Alcohol, Tabaco, Firearms, and Pornography. Thats it!

Old joke at work was, how many mechanics does it take to screw in a light bulb.
The new joke now is How many H-R people does it take to screw in a light bulb, NONE.

 

To add to the stupidity is that the same worker being downsized with 25 plus years experience at Harley is being laid off one second, and handed an application for employment as a TEMP worker the next. They are cutting salaries more than half, with NO benefits. I saw TEMP workers that were originally Harley hourly workers.
What that did to the moral was sad. People who were once proud as hell to work for Harley only now came to work daily. Some even burned all their Harley Tee shirts because they were so fed up. That also translates into the quality of the bikes built.

 

Working for "the man" sucks but if you don't have your own business it's all you can do.
I work for a nonunion company and I work hard, 55-60 hours a week, sometimes more. When we hire a new worker, they make pretty close to the same wage as a senior worker doing the same job.
Benefits aren't bad but they just raised my med. contribution $15 a week and reduced my benefit from 80/20 % to 75/25%. That's another $780 I can't spend on other things. I'm not happy about it but at least I'm working regular and paying the bills.
Medical costs are killing businesses but that's another subject. Thing is, if a company asks a union to pay a higher med. contribution, regardless of the increase, the union strikes. Well all the company can really do is higher temp. non benefited workers to offset the union crap. And the big differences in union pay scale is not the companies fault. How can a union collect dues from a temp worker? Doesn't make sense...unless you're a union boss.

 

Our med contribution went up this year by about 5%.
We did not strike nor was there any talk of striking.

 

I would hope not.
I was paying $19.95 a week (employee only). Went up to $34.95. That's what, about 75% increase. I was reading some articles about the UAW throwing a fit over a few dollars a month. Unbelievable.