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 Walker has made the iconic American brand a centerpiece of his
campaign kick-off tour this month, visiting four dealerships and
sometimes showing off his own 2003 Harley Road King as he seeks to
harness its appeal to older white male voters.
But there is another side to Harley that the Republican candidate
has been less vocal about - it is a leading example of a successful
company that has a strong relationship with labor unions.
Walker, by contrast, has made his union-busting credentials the
foundation of his White House bid, touting it as the prime example
of his leadership success and as evidence of how he can defeat
powerful vested interests and even foreign enemies.
It's not clear how he can reconcile his love of the powerful,
deep-rumbling bikes known as "hogs" with the strong union loyalties
of those who build them.
Some of the people who build Harleys - more than a thousand of whom
are unionized workers in Wisconsin - are fuming over Walker's
prominent use of the bikes in his campaign.
 "He's trying to make a name for himself by saying 'I took on 100,000
union workers' - and he's on our bikes," said Andy Voelzke, 57, who
works at Harley's plant just outside Milwaukee and is a member of
the United Steelworkers union.
"It's just such a contradiction."
As governor, Walker passed legislation over strong Democratic
opposition to limit collective bargaining for state employees. He
took another swipe at organized labor this year with a bill that
forbids unions within private firms from forcing workers to pay
dues.
Like other candidates in the crowded Republican primary field,
Walker is hoping to connect with voters in the "Harley-Davidson"
demographic, jokingly referred to as "old fat guys" and who are
perceived to be mostly conservatives.
Walker may already have some ground to make up among Harley lovers.
Ten out of a group of 11 riders approached by Reuters in downtown
Milwaukee on Tuesday named front-runner Donald Trump as their early
favorite in the race for the Republican nomination.
Seven of the riders, none of whom were from Wisconsin, said they
hadn't heard of Walker.
Harley’s unions in Wisconsin could be affected by Walker's "right to
work" reform passed this year. Voluntary membership could leave
unions with less money to pay for negotiators and lawyers. The
company will also have more power to fire employees for not agreeing
to additional tasks, such as overtime shifts.
"Governor Walker believes individual workers should be free to
decide on their own – without the influence of union bosses –
whether they’d like to join a union and pay dues and that’s why he
signed a law making Wisconsin a right-to-work state," said AshLee
Strong, a spokeswoman for Walker's campaign.
A spokeswoman for Harley-Davidson, which has enjoyed solid global
sales and whose share price has doubled over the past five years,
declined to comment, saying its management wanted to remain neutral.
THE HOG CASE STUDY
Harley-Davidson's relationship with its workers' unions isn't just
decent; it's studied as an example of how corporations can benefit
from organized labor.
[to top of second column] |
"They've had disputes in the past, but Harley has never tried to
kill the union and the union has always taken the attitude that it
wants Harley to succeed," said Paul Osterman, a professor at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.
"It's a successful example of labor-management cooperation."
Flags representing the United Steelworkers and the International
Brotherhood of Machinists fly alongside the U.S. flag and
Wisconsin's state flag at the entrance to Harley's plant on Pilgrim
Road, just outside the Milwaukee city limits. Harley's global
headquarters is in the city.
The plant's union leaders told Reuters they work closely with
management to fine-tune production, eliminate waste and collaborate
on new manufacturing initiatives.
The union is credited in the Harley-Davidson museum in Milwaukee,
which is run by the company, for helping to save the firm from
bankruptcy in the early 1980s.
The two sides haven't always gotten along. There have been worker
strikes as recently as 2007, and Harley has experimented with
efforts to offshore parts of its production.
But employees interviewed by Reuters said the company has, within
the past five years, repatriated some production after workers
argued it would improve efficiency.
Among the Harley riders interviewed by Reuters, Walker had a fan in
William Welp Jr., 60, a retired Navy commander who now teaches at a
public high school in Fort Lauderdale.
"When I first heard Scott Walker and saw him I thought: 'There's a
guy who thinks just like I do,'" said Welp, who had ridden from
Florida with three of his friends.
Welp said he had already donated to Walker and was against unions,
even though he joined one voluntarily.
Erin Spengler, 40, a Harley rider who works at Pilgrim Road,
described her anger when, in 2013, Walker climbed on a Harley to
lead a motorcycle rally as part of Milwaukee's Military Appreciation
Day Parade.
Spengler was supposed to participate, but at the last minute, she
said, decided to stay home.
"I am not going to let this guy lead me through town like a circus
when he's against everything I stand for," she said.
(Reporting By Emily Flitter: Additional reporting by Alexia Shurmur
in Las Vegas; editing by Stuart Grudgings.)
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