Harley employees: Strike was worth it

[Squirrel]

Harley employees: Strike was worth it
Article Last Updated: 02/23/2007 10:53:59 AM EST

Sometimes people stand on principle no matter the cost.

That's what Harley-Davidson workers say prompted the strike that ended yesterday with an 83 percent vote in favor of a new contract that includes a 4 percent annual wage increase and still doesn't require employees to pay premiums toward health insurance costs.

Integrity, some said, was worth days on the picket line in frigid temperatures, worth lost pay and angst over unpaid bills.

"There are times when you have to take a stand for what you believe in," said Donnie Fisher. "People say we make good money, that we're just being greedy. We've earned that. We earned the benefits."

Fisher was 21 when he began working at Harley-Davidson in 1978, when American Machine and Foundry Co. still owned it. He was there in 1981 when senior executives bought it back from AMF, and in 1982 when company brass asked workers to give up across-the-board cost-of-living increases to help keep the corporation in business.

Workers agreed then to give up that 6 percent raise to help the company because they believed in the American-made, American-owned company founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, Fisher said. And employees still believe in the concept and the company.

But, Fisher says there's a time to concede and a time to fight. He and several old-timers he's worked with in his nearly three-decade tenure
said the strike was as worth it this year as it was in 1991.

"The senior people have to look out for the younger generation," he said yesterday while votes were being counted. He stood with fellow employees who paint the motorcycles outside Toyota Arena at the York Fairgrounds.

Fisher stood with Dennis Sechrist, 49, and Mark Golden, 48, both of Spring Garden Township. The trio began work at the plant at the same time -- Golden and Fisher started the same day.

Each of them owns a Harley; they've purchased merchandise bearing their company's logo.

They say they support the company, believe in it and are loyal to it. They say they've have managed to stash cash, purchase homes and secure their future, part of which hinges on pensions and health insurance.

The three said they would have been OK had the strike continued, but that newer hires like James Butler might not fare as well. Butler has worked for the plant for about 30 months. He is 26, a husband and father of two boys who are ages 4 and 2.

He pays a mortgage and financially supports the family. He said he ran into "a little" financial problem during the strike and had to borrow $200, but an income tax refund helped keep the family afloat.

His picket shift was 6 to 9 p.m., for which he donned four layers of clothes, including long-johns and coveralls, to stay warm in what was the coldest weather this winter. Still, he says he didn't mind.

This was his first time on the line and the first time he sensed unity of what is the Harley-Davidson "family."

"It was a cool experience," he said. "You know everyone has your back, that everyone will take care of each other."