IN
THE
WIND
P44
UNION WORKERS AT ODDS WITH HARLEY
DAVIDSON OVER THAILAND PLANT
J
ust an assembly plant to supply
the growing Southeast Asian
market and work around steep
tariffs, says Harley. American jobs
are being shipped overseas, says
labor union.
Harley Davidson has been in
the headlines as union workers
are claiming that the closure of the
Kansas City plant (announced in
January) is now resulting in their
jobs being shipped overseas to a
new facility in Thailand.
The closure of the Kansas City
plant put 800 workers out of a
job, but much of the work is being
moved to the Harley-Davidson
plant in York, Pennsylvania,
creating 400 jobs there, Harley ex-
plained in a story with the Milwau-
kee Journal Sentinel. Yet accord-
ing to employees and members of
the Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers, some of the
jobs are being moved to Thailand.
Harley denies that the closure of
the Kansas City plant has anything
to do with the work that will be
done at the Thai facility. "The plant
under construction in Thailand is a
separate and unrelated issue. Part
of our long-term strategy is to grow
our international business to 50
percent of our annual volume by
2027. The Thailand facility will allow
us to be competitive and provide
riders greater access to our brand
and our products in an expanding
global marketplace," read a state-
ment from Harley.
"Increasing production capacity
in Asia is consistent with the com-
pany's long-term strategy to focus
on growth internationally. It is not
intended to reduce U.S. manufac-
turing."
The workers, however, tell a dif-
ferent story.
Richard Pence, a 21-year
veteran machinist at the Kansas
City plant, explained to the Jour-
nal Sentinel that engineers from
the plant are heading to Thailand
do help set up the plant, and also
claims that some of the production
equipment is being shipped from
Kansas City to Thailand.
In a meeting Wednesday, May
9, with House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), members of
the Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers voiced their
concerns, and harshly criticized
Harley of "taking tax breaks with
one hand and handing out pink
slips with the other."
While it is no secret that U.S.
sales have been steadily declining
for Harley-Davidson, the Southeast
Asian market is one of its fastest
growing sectors. The Motor Com-
pany has been eager to maintain
that growth, but they hit a speed
bump when the Trump administra-
tion abandoned the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) early last year.
Despite the urging of Harley CEO
Matt Levatich to keep the U.S. in
it, President Trump abandoned
the trade pact, forcing the brand
to change its strategy. The new
tactic was to create a new facility
in Thailand in order to get around
Thailand's 60 percent tariff, and
also facilitate easier access to the
surrounding Asean region and
China. In May 2017, Harley an-
nounced plans for a new plant in
the Rayong province.
The announcement was met
with criticism from the union at the
time, but Harley insisted at the time
there was "no intent to reduce H-D
U.S. manufacturing due to this
expansion."
"We would rather not make the
investment in that [Thailand] facil-
ity, but that's what's necessary to
access a very important market,"
Levatich said in an interview with
Bloomberg last month.
"It is a direct example of how
trade policies could help this
company, but we have to get on
with our work to grow the business
by any means possible, and that's
what we're doing."
As for the Kansas City workers,
there is little hope of a turnaround,
despite their pleas and their criti-
cisms. "It's sort of like the horse is
out of the barn now," Pence said. "I
think there's going to be a big layoff
in August and an even bigger one
in October. After that, we will basi-
cally have a few hundred people
left to finish out the Sportster line
through the next model-year next
spring. Then that will be it for us."
Jean Turner
