Bryan's Blog

The axe is falling at Harley-Davidson’s York plant. The latest round of job cuts at the Springettsbury Township plant has commenced, this time at the expense of 200 union production workers, who learned that this week would be their last with the company. The York plant’s workforce, which once stood approximately 2800 strong, has quickly dwindled since workers were given the ultimatum to approve a new contract with The Motor Company or face outright plant closure. At the beginning of December, 2009, the plant employed about 1950. The new contract slated another 750 of those jobs for termination, while another 250 workers would be on-call to work ‘as needed.’

According to company spokesperson Michael DiMauro, the company is getting closer to the final number. Harley’s First Quarter results revealed that worldwide retail sales of new H-D motorcycles were down 18.2% in comparison to the first quarter of 2009. The domestic market slumped even harder, with sales dropping by 24.3%, also compared to the same 2009 time-frame.

To boot, Harley-Davidson Motor will not be hosting any Open House events at the Company’s York Operations or Kansas City’s Vehicle and Powertrain Operations this fall. They’re even shutting down access to the public. As the Harley newsline states, this is “due to an expanded commitment of event marketing resources to other activities, including events that focus on new demographic markets, as well as the ongoing restructuring activities underway at York.”

More Harley workers are losing their jobs and now they’re canceling opportunities to reach out directly to the people who support the company. Hard times bring about hard decisions. The workers at York had a little heads-up that this day would inevitably come, but it doesn’t change the reality that the unemployment office in York County will be busy Monday morning. When will Harley’s bleeding stop?