A plan to restructure core Harley operations in York is in the hands of the company, the union’s president said.

Part of a plan to restructure Harley-Davidson operations in York County was submitted to corporate officials during a recent conference call, a union representative said Tuesday.
Restructuring the operations is one of multiple hurdles the company and union are trying to overcome to help keep the plant in Pennsylvania.

Dave Bunnell, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 175, said the plan dealt with core manufacturing operations.

Bunnell expects to hear back from corporate in about a week on the proposal.

Restructuring the business of making motorcycles at the Springettsbury Township facility and negotiating a new contract are two hurdles that, if cleared, could help Harley decide to stay local.

However, if restructuring plans are not adequate, Bunnell said, a contract that meets with the company’s needs would be moot.

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Harley-Davidson are running a series of ads, depicting Latino Harley riders, called Harlista. Several of these passionate motorcycle riders are shown in the ads, each one has its own ad, with a slogan, and their life story. 

It’s kind of interesting to see, totally different from the ads we’ve been seeing from the Milwaukee company.

Click here to view the ads.

FAYETTEVILLE — Amy Seligman was terrified of motorcycles when her husband bought one about 18 months ago.

She rode behind him for exactly two days, then went out and bought her own.

“I’d always ridden four-wheelers, but bikes, no way,” said Seligman, of Centerton. “I knew right away when I rode that I wanted to be in control of my own.”

She and husband Sean were just two of the thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts swamping Dickson Street on Saturday, the final day of the 10th annual Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally.

Rabbit Cubbage first climbed on his bike to join his father, who’d ridden for years. After his father died, Cubbage, a youth pastor in Westville, Okla., kept riding.

“I started for the relationship with my dad, but now, I like it for the stress relief,” Cubbage said. “I do two things for stress, ride and golf. The difference is, if you screw up in golf, you don’t die.”

Ed Roach doesn’t remember what kind of bike he first rode, but that was more than four decades ago. He rolled into Fayetteville on Saturday on a Buell sportbike, but also owns a Harley and a dual-sport dirtbike.

“I just like to get out and see God’s creation, and there’s no better way to do that than on a bike,” said Roach, of Tahlequah, Okla. “Used to be I got a lot of dirty looks for being a biker, but it’s gone so mainstream in the last five years or so, there’s no stigma attached to it any more.”

Mainstream or not, Bikes, Blues & BBQ grew from a small gathering of riders outside a local restaurant and a poker run to one of the nation’s largest motorcycle gatherings in just a decade. Attendance estimates have exceeded 300,000 in the past few years.

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