News
Layoffs and Production

We are in some very troubled times, I am sure everyone knows that just by watching the news and seeing your friends and family lose their jobs to a poor economy and bad decisions.  Of course, the hope is that this will end quickly. Some would have you believe that it is about to end because the stock market is on the rebound.  Reality is many of the companies reporting increased profits are able to report them due to cost/workforce reductions.  This is not a real sign of improvement in the economy.  A company cannot survive on reductions for the long haul.  Until the economy turns around and the people that had good paying jobs in this country are re-employed in good paying jobs our leisure product is highly at risk of becoming something that the average American will chose to live without. 
   
We cannot change the economy but we can help ensure that the company we work for has the best opportunity to remain profitable during a bad economy. WE, the union members at Harley-Davidson must get creative in helping the company to find cost reductions that save large amounts of money; if we fail to do this the company will undoubtedly resort to the elimination of the workforce as a way of survival.

 I am not going to kid you, the life we lived up to the point when the company announced the initial reduction has ended.  We have now entered a new era at Harley-Davidson, one that will include the implementation of programs designed to make the plants more flexible. Programs that will without a doubt combine some jobs and require people to do extra work.  A time when we won’t be able to purchase the latest and greatest piece of equipment to get the job done.  A time when our future is partly based on how we respond to the troubles we are facing currently.

 The company has decided that in order to survive in the global market and remain a US Manufacturer producing an American product we have to become more flexible and productive in order to beat our competition.  We have a challenging road ahead of us and some things will be no problem and others will create heartburn that we will have to work through.  The company is currently restructuring, specifically where plants will be located and what work will be in each plant. We have the ability to put ourselves in a position of being the plant of choice, the place the company wants to put the new work. We can do this by ensuring that we continue to meet schedule with the high quality motorcycles that we have been asked to produce from our plant.  If we fail to meet schedule and the cost to produce the motorcycles doesn’t begin to come down we will lose some positions and people and this will continue until our current work is moved to lower cost regions of the world.

We need to stick together and ensure that we are meeting the needs of the business to remove every possible reason that they could come up with to not place work in this plant. Call it what you want, but reality is that we have some control over our own future.  The more the people in this plant step up and deliver the more likely we will have a brighter future. The future of this plant, our jobs, and the jobs of the people being laid off, are dependent upon us showing the company that this is the right place to invest for the future. This is the only way we will ensure that we have done everything we can do to keep what we have and bring all of our co-workers back to work.

Tony Willson
I.A.M.A.W. 176 President





RIVERSIDE, MISSOURI OPENINGS:


We are now accepting applications for the Riverside, Missouri plant; please see below for information on openings, and instructions on how to apply.

OPENINGS


 SHIFTS


 PAY


 HOW TO APPLY


 





New Job Openings

Brothers and Sisters, First off we would like to assure you that there will not be a lower senior member in the building while a “qualified” higher senior member is on the street. We realize there are some of you that have not received your letter regarding your return to work. The recall is currently under way, but it is very time consuming and complicated; the company has to complete the bid process so that they are able to offer you a defined position instead of having you report to a process area.  It is possible that some of you may end up reporting to a process area with out a defined job if we run out of time due to testing.  We are making every effort to get people back to work with defined position, but if we run out of time we will try to bring those that the company is recalling back on the 4th of Jan. and this could result in a small number of you coming back and reporting to a process area without a defined job for a few days.  Therefore, it may be that some of you will receive your letter after the 18th of December. We have discovered that not all of the company’s contact information is current; so that we have every opportunity to reach those of you that have not received their letter we have a phone number for you to call so you can be assured we have your current information. That phone number is 816 270-8262; if we do not answer please leave a message and we will return your call.  

 For those of you that have already received your letters and made the call to the company and are nervous about whether or not they got your message, we have gotten the company to agree not to skip any one until we have had a chance to contact you ourselves. 

Obama Signs COBRA Subsidy Extension An extension of the 65 percent COBRA subsidy was signed into law by President Obama on December 19, 2009. This extension extends the eligibility window for the subsidy until February 28, 2010, and also increases the subsidy period for laid-off workers to 15 months of coverage, up from the current nine months. Under the new bill, any worker who loses his or her job before February 28, 2010, would now be eligible for the subsidy, and the subsidy will now provide 15 months of coverage as opposed to the original nine months. Workers whose coverage has already terminated after nine months of subsidy will be given the opportunity to re-enroll for the extended coverage. All other provisions of the original bill remain intact. Health care premiums will be discounted by 65 percent and the worker would be required to pay the remaining 35 percent to maintain their health care coverage. The government subsidizes their contribution directly with the employer and does not bill the actual employee for the full cost of the benefits. The law also gives qualified individuals a “second chance” to elect COBRA coverage if they turned it down previously. The plan is required to notify laid-off workers of a second COBRA enrollment period. Additionally, laid-off workers can change to a plan that costs less than their original plan, if it is offered to active employees. If a company denies the premium reduction to individuals on COBRA, an expedited appeal process is available through the Department of Labor. For more information on the COBRA subsidy, visit the special Department of Labor (DOL) website at www.dol.gov/cobra. There are also Benefits Advisors on staff at the DOL, who can be contacted at 866-444-3272.