Milwaukee Iron Stays in Milwaukee

by James Parks, Nov 17, 2006

Long-time Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders call their machines “Milwaukee Iron.” At a time when manufacturing workers are losing their jobs to offshore factories or nonunion shops, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2-209 know that Milwaukee Iron is going to stay in Milwaukee after they approved a memorandum of agreement to their contract with Harley-Davidson.

Both sides went back to the drawing board last month after the workers rejected an earlier tentative agreement. The company was looking for a way to cut costs and wanted to cut by as much as one-third wages of workers hired after the first of the year. The new agreement, approved on Nov. 14,  includes a two-tier wage system for newly hired employees, but with much smaller gaps than in the earlier agreement.

The deal also means the 1,600 union members will keep their jobs and it requires the company to invest more than $120 million to expand production of the power train capacity in Milwaukee, creating more than 100 new jobs.

Harley-Davidson’s commitment to keeping jobs in America is linked to its partnership with its workers’ unions. Committees composed of managers and union representatives team up to make many of the company’s important decisions. This unique approach helped propel the company back to success after being on the brink of bankruptcy in 1994. That’s when the company and its unions agreed to collaborate and establish a High Performance Work Organization partnership. As part of the partnership, employees and management make consensus decisions that keep the company competitive and find efficient methods to produce high-quality products without compromising production levels, job security or working conditions.

Local 2-209 President Jim Wheiland says the union is looking forward to

expanding here, rather than worry about a rival plant that would produce the same product with newer, state of the art equipment.

All Harley-Davidson Big Twin and XL power trains are now produced in Milwaukee. If workers had rejected the deal, the company had said it would expand production outside of Wisconsin. The new agreement specifies that the company will remain in Milwaukee.

Wheiland says:

The upside is that “Milwaukee Iron” will continue to be made right here in Milwaukee where it belongs.

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