Here's an article from the today's Milwaukee paper;business section:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=560524

Here's the last paragraph for those in a hurry:

Currently, the union employees at the York plant pay no premium for health insurance coverage and have minimal out-of-pocket costs, according to the company.

A few other tidbits to clear up some of the confusion on this thread...the employees do not make $20 per hour, it's more like $27. And, even though it looks bad for the CEO to bring down the amount of coinhe does, bitching about that is akin to class envy. There are 2800 employees at the York plant alone, and countless other thousands at the Kansas City, Milwaukee and Tomahawk plants. If we just take the 2800 at York and change their wage by 4%, figure a 2080 hour work year, and do some basic math we can see what kind of an impact a small change can have on a large body of employees.

2800 employees X 2080 hours = 5,824,000 hours. 5,824,000 hours times $27 per hour = $157,248,000--one hundred fifty seven million two hundred forty eight thousand dollars in straight-time pay to assemble just two lines of bikes! Now add just the offered pay raise of 4%: $157,248,000 X 4% and you end up with another$6,289,920 added to operating costs.

Okay, so the 4% raise at just one plant adds over6 million dollars in cost ofoperations without even considering the extra $$$ the company is willing to give for the 401K plans, or the amount the company pays for every employee's health insurance.Then you've still got to figure inall the other plants, all of the salaried employees, the massive amounts of overtime all of the plants have offered for years ($40 per hour at time-and-a-half), shipping costs, retired workers drawing a pension, etc. Kinda makes theCEO's salary look paltry by comparison.

 

you fella's are truely misinformed, 3.9 of that 4.0% is to go to healthcare, moco will match 50% of your first 6% on your 401k but only if the moco shows a 11% profit that month, average hourly pay is 20.76, now the new plan says new hires are starting at 18.00 with NO chance to move up,new hires will not be allowed the contributary pension, the moco has put out tidbits of info and a few narrow minded have picked it up and ran with it, facts are facts but knowledge is power, dont confuse the two!

 

Sounds like you have a bit of insider information...You mind sharing your source or some more details with us?

 

Hello, lets wake up here as times are changing. This has been going on for several years in corporate America.

New hires do not have the same retirement medical coverage as existing employees.

New hire do not have the same retirement pension as existing employees.

A significant amount of annual pay is bonuses which are tied to company performance.

While this is not a trend that anyone wants to see, it is reality as US companies struggle to compete with foreign competition, rising medical cost, a growing pension burden, etc. Survival is about being able to adapt to a changing environment and HD is no different.

 

Sure and hire Texicans to work the plant. They do such good work for Volkswagen. Let's NAFTA Harley Davidson. Then, we can call Victory-Polaris the last American motorcycle company. Where will the "mystique" go then?

 

Are you crazy? This has been going on for more than 25 years. As our US dollar gets devalued, we can compete on price.When weerect trade barriers and tariff's like the EU and Chinese do on American imports, we will compete further. All the while HD CEO pulls in 10 MILLION PER YEAR.
So now that the average CEO MAKES 500 TIMES THE LINE WORKERS, that is ok by you?

IT IS NOT OK BY ME AS A SHAREHOLDER.

Survival is one thing. How about changing the environment and the current rules to the game instead of being victim of it.

Call me

THE PROTECTIONIST

 

Let's start buying the parts or kits and build our our American made bikes

 

I agree that what you read in the papers, on the news doesnt give the whole issues of this contract.The workers here know what they walked for-I hope you get satisfaction or at least something the majority can live with.Stay warm,good luck.

 

Man, this really sucks in a lot of ways.

For my own personal reasonsas I have a CVO Ultra Classic that was supposed to hit in mid March.

Bet I can kiss that baby goodbye[X(]

It is hard to believe they do not pay any premiums for their health care coverage. We started paying for ours about 7 years ago Plus deductibles have gone up, and all of the other stuff that happens as companies try to prevent what has happened to quite a few American car and truck mfgs.

Also, our merit pool at work has only been about 3.5% the last several years. I think the boys and girls in the plant need to wake up a bit.

 

They shouldn't have to wake up! Management should wake up! Just because it is the trend does not make it right.My union sold me and everyone else I worked with down the river. I hate the union. But I paid my dues and went along with the program. Why all of a sudden should we have to pay for health care? Because health care costs are soaring? Because hospitals charge you $20 for an aspirin? Go after the health care providers and bring costs back down where they should be.They bitch about their insurance premiums but leave surgical instruments in your body when they sew you back up! I'm glad they had the ***** to strike and I hope they get what they want. My union closed down my place of employment because they were in bed with management and then they re-opened it two years later after all the high paid employees retired or moved on. I'm not a fan of union or management, I just hope they get what they are striking for.
Gary D.